Team Ozpin Series Three: Dusk
by DarthFissure95
Summary: In the final volume of this series, Professor Ozpin is forced to track down and stop Signal Belladonna and her team of Faunus extremists from taking the one component they need to destroy the human race: Summer Rose, and he seeks out an old and mysterious friend for help. Meanwhile, Qrow and his team face their greatest enemy yet, which will determine the fate of Remnant.
1. Silver Eyes

**AN: Well, here is the first chapter of the final volume of** ** _Team Ozpin_** **! I already have most of the story for this volume mapped out and it's exciting. If you guys have seen RWBY Volume 3, you shouldn't be shocked my most of the content in this volume, but I feel I should tell you that this one is darker and more intense than the first two, but I can also assure you that there's a light in the darkness, even in Ozpin's most desperate moments that you get to read about in this volume. Have fun!**

 ***Credit goes to Elfin Maid for being my editor and to my personal friend Poul for being a storytelling consultant to craft the story with me.**

 _There was darkness, piercing, vibrant, and screaming. Ozpin could feel it embracing him like a lover after a long time of being apart, gripping him tightly._

 _"I'm not gone Ozpin. You know this_."

 _He stepped backwards, his feet abruptly meeting empty air_.

 _He fell_.

Ozpin's eyes shot open, his chest heaving hard as he tried to regain his bearings. He expected to find himself in bed, but he was sitting on a stool. He looked around, and realized he was in a bar. The rough sounds of harsh laughter rattled his eardrums; a fight was brewing in one corner. A half-full glass of beer was in one of his hands.

"Hey, you've barely drunk enough to get a hangover," someone said next to him. Ozpin looked to see Qrow Branwen with his own glass - on the rocks.

Oz shivered slightly and then sighed, thankful that any recollection of his nightmare had drifted away. "Why do you push me to do this to myself, Qrow?" Despite his words, Ozpin took another sip. He felt like the liquid was threatening to burn a hole through his throat and leak out.

"This is what every Headmaster does at some point. You just don't see it much because you're always up in that tower," Qrow replied, waving a dismissive hand.

Oz searched for a defense, knowing full-well Qrow was right. He did spend a lot of time in the tower now. One year had passed since Onyx's death and Signal's disappearance. Once in a while Ozpin would still wake up from a nightmare - bathed in sweat, panic tinging his vision - of watching the body of his former mentor Gray dissolve into dust, the very substance that formed him, after being killed by Onyx.

"Just finish that up. You'll thank me later," Qrow said, and tossed the remaining contents of his glass down his throat.

Ozpin allowed his drink to swirl a bit as he immersed himself back into his thoughts. Everything was becoming blurry, memories that were usually painfully clear beginning to fog over.

As thoughts and memories alike danced wildly, he found himself remembering Glynda.

 _Glynda_ , he thought, and a thorn of pain lodged itself in his chest. _Come back_. _Please_.**

*The two Huntsmen moved faster than the speed of light. Steel clashed, grunts broke out, and a variety of colors exploded over their heads.

It was Qrow and Taiyang Xiao Long duking it out in the practice arena at Beacon Academy.

Qrow's large sword had transformed into a scythe, and he twirled it blindingly fast, Tai backing away and lifting his own sword in in a weak attempt to parry Qrow's deadly moves. Qrow was relentless, swinging for Tai's feet, which he avoided by leaping up, then performing a flip in the air to slash down at Qrow's head.

Qrow quickly reverted his scythe back into a sword and lifted it, feeling the violent rattle as Tai's sword collided with his.

Qrow did a back flip, kicking his feet up Tai's chin and sending him flying backwards.

Seizing the opportunity, Qrow launched himself at Tai's fallen body and started fake-stabbing him with his sword.

"Stab, stab, slash, you're dead," he said, sounding almost bored. He returned his sword to his back and stuck out his hand. Tai took it, allowing Qrow to lift him to his feet.

"Damn, you have got to stop scaring me with that scythe," Tai said, shaking his head.

"I'm scary all over, Tai," Qrow said calmly. "You should be used to it by now."

The lights finally soared back on all the way, brightening up the room and revealing the students that sat in the booths watching. Ozpin and Summer Rose stood beside the stage.

Oz stepped forward, clapping as he went. "Excellent work. Was that entertaining enough for all of you?" he called out.

The students clapped and cheered enthusiastically.

"And I take it that you all want to be that powerful some day?"

The students all cheered again in response, the roar of their combined voices quite possibly louder than the previous one.

Ozpin sighed and held up his hand to settle everyone down. The room immediately hushed and Oz could feel dozens of students leaning forward to listen.

"I don't mean to ruin the mood, but in the last few years, I have made many mistakes, and I am not a perfect Headmaster—or a perfect Huntsman for that matter. I want you all to succeed. You're all my responsibility, and I will see to it that you are trained and readied to be the best Huntsmen and Huntresses our world has ever known. Just know that I have made mistakes - and I'm going to make more. But if this school continues to value equality and treat everyone with the honor and respect they deserve, then you will not mess up like I did. If there's one thing that I will be able to teach you successfully before your graduation, it is that."

For a moment, the students worked on absorbing what he said. It was an odd thing to bring up now, especially after a one-on-one fight between two professional Huntsmen, but Ozpin was desperate to speak his mind. If he was going to be able to stay as Headmaster of an academy, then he needed to do it right.

The students stood and clapped, some of them grinning widely.

 _Glynda, if only you were here now_.

A hand brushed his shoulder, the touch soft and sure. He turned to see Summer smiling at him. Her silver eyes glowed.

"Well done, Ozpin," she said.

"I do my best," Oz replied. He glanced down at Summer's stomach, now considerably rounded. She was pregnant, and was expected to deliver within weeks. She was married to Taiyang now, who had almost recovered from missing his first love, Raven.

There was a lot that Team Stark and Ozpin were going through. Past pain and regret chewed away at them like maggots devouring a dead corpse. Onyx's situation and tragic end had done a number on Qrow and he had lost the girl Blake that he was supposed to protect. Ozpin had lost Signal and Glynda, and Taiyang had lost Raven.

There was so much loss, and yet they pushed onwards, as if they knew when their last breaths would be.

Right now, there was something far more important to discuss, and Ozpin was running out of time.

Immediately after the students were dismissed, Ozpin asked Qrow and Taiyang to meet him in the tower.**

*Ozpin stood in front of his desk, surveying his office and making sure to get a good look between Taiyang and Qrow as they stood with their arms folded waiting for him to start talking. Oz had both his hands on the top of a cane with a gray handle. He had created it shortly after Glynda left as a way to distract his mind from everything that had happened with Onyx and Signal and Glynda.

"First of all, congratulations. I don't need to explain why I'm saying that to you," Ozpin said to Taiyang.

"Thank you, Ozpin," Taiyang replied with a small bow.

"There is an important matter that must be discussed about Summer, however. Something that I've neglected to talk about, until now."

Taiyang and Qrow glanced at each other, frowning in confusion.

Qrow shrugged and took a swig from his canteen, liquor sloshing within. "What would that be?" he asked.

"Summer Rose has a special—trait about her that has caught my attention. She is in possession of silver eyes. That is not something that can just be overlooked. Have you ever heard the legend of silver-eyed warriors?" Ozpin asked.

"Can't say that I have. Sounds like merely a legend," Qrow said, sounding unimpressed.

"Yes. And for a while, I thought so too, but Summer's powers somewhat resemble the powers of silver-eyed warriors, which were much more common before Huntsmen and Huntresses were even an idea."

"What are you saying? That my wife is some kind of overpowered witch?" Taiyang asked, his words tinged with the slightest hint of offense.

"Not a witch - at least, I don't believe so - but she is powerful, and she has abilities that I don't believe any of us here have even been able to witness yet. It is said that silver-eyed warriors were even feared by the Grimm, and that a simple glance at one of these warriors can send creatures of Grimm fleeing. But Summer's possible connection to these "legends" is only part of the puzzle," Ozpin explained.

Taiyang's eyes widened as he realized what Ozpin was referring to. "Are you saying that the child within her may be born with the same traits?"

Ozpin didn't answer. He didn't have to.

"You must understand, Taiyang, that I am not proposing that Summer or your new child is any sort of threat to us. My fear is that a threat will rise up against them," Ozpin said.

"Sounds like a lot of crap to me, but I don't believe that you would tell us these things if you didn't believe it," Qrow said.

"Maybe you should start at the beginning. Tell us about these legends, and maybe we can find a way to protect Summer," Taiyang suggested.

Ozpin leaned against his desk and sighed. "Very well. There's a lot that I learned about them. As I said before, silver-eyed warriors came before Huntsmen and Huntresses. They were the protectors of Remnant. They fought the Grimm, but unlike Huntsmen and Huntresses, victory was handed to them every time without incident because of their power.

"Their power is described as something that can be unleashed from their bodies, threatening to either freeze enemies in their tracks or complete decimate them until there's nothing left. They were so feared that they were hunted down by normal people, who were afraid that some would grow reckless with their power and they would be next."

Qrow scoffed quietly, took another swig from his canteen, and shuffled his feet. Ozpin ignored him.

"Now, only a few remain, and the locations of most are unknown. One thing, however, is certain: if a Huntsman or Huntress is smart enough to find one and defeat it in battle, there is no telling what could or would happen if they found out how to transmit that power from the warrior to him or her self." **

*Signal Belladonna looked up from the book she was reading, heart beating slightly faster than normal. It was thick and black, the binding still strong despite its age. She had taken it from Ozpin's underground library a long time ago and had managed to keep it with her throughout the years. She stared off into the distance for a moment, then shifted her gaze back to the print, eyes glowing in anticipation as they roved the pages.

She was now the leader of her own group of selected members of the White Fang radicals called the Lioness's Pride, and she was seeking out ways to grow in power. She wasn't confident in her appearance, mainly due to her youth, and without that power, she wouldn't get respect from those who were meant to fear her.

She wore a sleeveless burgundy velvet fighter's dress with a black belt worn tightly around her waist to keep the lower half of the outfit close to her legs. She also wore black greaves for her knee caps and ebony plated armor over her chest and stomach, and in two coal-black sheaths fitted on her back were her daggers, one of which was broken thanks to the terrible incident long ago that changed her life.

Her long hair was gone, replaced with a military cut, and a tattoo of a lion's claws, the symbol of the Lioness' Pride, was branded on her forehead. Her image was meant to display her beauty, but not to the extent where others would lust after her and ignore her words. She wanted people to know that she was beautiful, but she also wanted people to know that she was to be feared and respected.

Yes, thinking about Onyx cracking her head against the wall for the billionth time is brilliant.

 _It's almost sad_.

 _It's horrendous_.

 _I_ like _it_.

The images spurred her on to push harder to achieve her goal. To wipe out the human race that had been hurting her people for too long.

Behind her, two of her most trusted members of the Lioness' Pride entered the room. One was larger than the other, with a bull's ears and solid scarlet eyes. The other had a bull's horns, but one of them had its tip broken off. He wore the tip as a necklace wound around his neck.

"You called for us, my lady?" the large Faunus asked.

"I have a job for you two," Signal said calmly, coolly. "And this time" - She paused, watching as their faces stiffened slightly, then continued - "failure is not acceptable."


	2. Going Public

**AN: Sorry for the long wait! I've been busy with other projects and I wanted to make sure that this chapter was done well. Please leave feedback!**

*Leonidus and Brutus were twin brothers. They had been born together, and they intended on dying together as well.

After the death of Jasper, his lieutenant Khol Taurus tried to pick up the pieces and strove keep Jasper's followers intact so that they could continue pursuing the passion that Jasper had ingrained in all of them: the extinction of the human race. Leonidus and Brutus were among them, dedicated to serving Khol until Signal Belladonna arrived on the scene with a shocking revelation. Signal was Jasper's lost sister. Even Leonidus could recognize the same wild passion in Signal's eyes as Jasper's eyes had had. If Signal had the same goals as them, then they had no quarrel with her, and Khol was more than willing to resume his position as lieutenant to give Signal her deserved position of leadership, and so far, it was working. Word was spreading across the island of Patch about 'Faunus radicals' that were revealing themselves to families and government officials slowly over time, leading to more military patrols sent from Atlas around every corner.

"Remember, we leave no one alive," Leonidus said to Brutus as they made their way through an alley between two shops. In the darker, deeper section of the city of Splotch, known as the Black Hole, the Lioness's Pride had its base in a building no more special than the others, an abandoned theater where the enemies of mankind stayed in waiting to make their presence fully known. Today was the day.

"Who are we actually after?" Brutus asked.

Leonidus handed his brother his scroll, which had a picture of an anti-White Fang activist named Plum Jenta brought up. He was a government official that had his own seat in the island's small council and had been working hard for years to scatter the White Fang to the winds, claiming them to be a thorn in every kingdom's side. Such was the nature of people on a pedestal. If they said something, regardless of how absurd it sounded, everyone else would believe it was the wisest thing ever said and would be all in in getting behind that person's claim, mostly out of fear for the hated side.

"This man believes he has a right to speak his mind and form rallies against our kind, when we are trying to do the same thing to make a point. A point that is far more important than their own, brother," Leonidus explained.

Brutus scanned Plum's picture up and down. Just by simply looking at a picture, Brutus detested the man, even though he had seen very little of what he had done.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Brutus asked.

"We're going to take him alive, and execute him in public for everyone to see. The time for the Lioness's Pride to hide itself in the shadows has finally reached an end."

Brutus's hand went straight for the handle of his knife. Tied tightly around the handle were several strands of Leonidus's hair.

"Where is the official?" Brutus asked as they emerged from the alley. Leonidus motioned his head across the street where there was a large building used for hosting banquets.

 _Of course_ , Brutus thought to himself. Grabbing Plum and executing him in front of his guests was the plan.

"Be ready. Follow me, and do exactly as I tell you," Leonidus said.

"I've never not done exactly what you tell me to do," Brutus replied.

A ghost of a smile broke through Leonidus's semi-permanent scowl but he doesn't say anything in reply. Every ounce in his body was preparing itself for what was to come, and Brutus had to ready himself too.

"His speech will be soon. We'll have to be quick. I will go in posing as a guest and get close enough to him for you. Do not slit his throat until I give the signal," Leonidus said. He reached into his dark vest and pressed a hidden button, activating a disguise simulator to generate a fancy, black suit with a red rose pinned to one side of his chest. A black hat covered his bull ears.

"Just wait here, and when I go in, count to thirty."

Thirty was a significant number for Leonidus and Brutus. Thirty was the number of lashes their mother was given by a new worker from the Schnee Dust company's labor forces. Now that number was an important part of their work and they used it for whatever purposes they could put the number in. Brutus had a feeling that Leonidus already had a plan to use that number here.

Leonidus strode across the street, pretending to walk away from a parked car. He makes it to the guards standing on both sides of the front doors. They looked him up and down and let him in. It was that easy. Now all Brutus had to do was wait and count to thirty.

 _One…two…three…four_ …**

*Inside the banquet building, Leonidus was surrounded by humans. It disgusted him. All of them were disgusting. He kept his eyes from stopping to focus on any humans that wasn't Plum.

… _Five…six…seven_ …

"Well hello there. You look lost," someone said beside him. Leonidus looked to see a tall young man wearing a hat like he had on except it had a red band around it and a feather tucked in. He wore black eyeliner that made his eyes green eyes pop and he wore a long white coat with black pants and leather dress shoes. His neatly trimmed hair was a bright orange and he held a cane.

 _Twelve…thirteen…fourteen_ …

"I'm not. Not really. I need to speak to Plum before he begins his speech," Leonidus said, trying to keep his gaze away from the human.

"And you plan on bringing a knife to the conversation?" The orange-haired man asked, holding up Leonidus's knife with the strands of Brutus's hair tied to the handle. Leonidus felt the volcano in his heart start to overflow with lava.

"That's mine," Leonidus said. His hand went up to his ear to pretend he was adjusting his hat but tapped the small earpiece instead.

"Brutus, hold on. Not yet."

"What?" Brutus's voice asked.

"How did you manage to grab that?" Leonidus asked the stranger.

"I'm a professional of a sort. You plan on murdering Plum Jenta, and the only reason I can think of as to why, is because you're a Faunus and you disagree with his words about the White Fang," the man said.

"You think you will be able to stop me?" Leonidus growled.

"That's not the plan. I'll even record the whole thing for you if you want it to go public," the man replied.

Leonidus raised an eyebrow. Was the man serious? Was he actually going to help him carry this out?

Roman Torchwick twirled Leonidus's knife in his hand and gave it back to the Faunus, then took out his scroll. "You better get moving."

Leonidus nodded and decided not to argue. If Roman was planning to trap him and his brother somehow, there was no way the authorities would be able to keep their grip on them. They were too powerful to be held down.

Leonidus took a glass of wine from a passing waiter carrying around free glasses, and gets closer to Plum, who was completely unaware of what was coming.

"When I say 'go', it'll be your turn. Understood?" Leonidus spoke into his earpiece.

"Um, yes."

 _No. He_ doesn't u _nderstand_.

Leonidus removed his knife from his belt and tossed it behind him. It spun through the air before sinking its tip into the wall next to the bar, quivering slightly. Several people nearby gasped in terror and dropped their drinks, splattering red wine all over the carpet.

"Go," Leonidus said.

There was a brief white flash behind him, and more people screamed as Brutus showed up out of nowhere, armed to the teeth with his black sword, having been able to teleport through his connection to the hairs tied around Leonidus's knife. Leonidus pulled out his shield, which at first was just a thick roll, and pressed a button for it to unfold into its full round shape.

"Mr. Jenta!" he hollered.

Plum, a plump man wearing a purple suit, turned to face him with eyes wide with horror. Leonidus wasted no time in tossing the shield at him, watching it collide into Plum's chest and send him flying backwards. His back hit the wall so hard, a large dent was left behind.

"What did you do? I was supposed to be teleported right by him!" Brutus shouted.

"Be quiet!" Leonidus shouted back. He pressed another button behind his shield, and it transformed into a shotgun aimed directly at Plum's head.

"You're reckless, Mr. Jenta. You have stirred the wrath of the Lioness, and she expects payment for your offenses," he said.

"I'll pay her however much she desires, just let me live!" Plum sputtered.

Leonidus couldn't help but spit a wad of saliva to the side.

What a disgusting human being.

"I speak for her, you will not negotiate with her. That's not how the Lioness works." Without any warning, Leonidus fired his shotgun, and Plum's arm exploded into it a cloud of yellow Dust. Plum screamed in pain and clutched the stump where his entire arm used to be.

"Stop it! Stop!" A man shouted from the crowd. Leonidus turned and saw a man making his way through the crowd to come to the front.

"This is precisely why we have these gatherings! You and your kind idolize violence. You're dangerous. You're all animals."

Within a second, the man was flung back by a shotgun blast to the stomach. Dust drifted from the open wound, and once he hit the ground, his entire body dissipated into Dust.

"Now then," Leonidus said, cocking his shotgun, "where were we?"

He turned back around and aimed at Plum again.

"No! No wai—," Plum couldn't finish before he was shot and killed by Leonidus. His body started to dissipate as well.

"Being returned back to the Dust is a mercy. I wish no human had that luxury," Leonidus said. He turned to face the crowd.

"Hear me now! The Lioness and her Pride is coming! All of you will die, and our kind will no longer be subjected to your discrimination and hate! If you can't accept us, then we can't accept you!" Leonidus declared. He looked to Roman who was holding up his scroll to record the whole thing. He winked, and Leonidus nodded. Then, he vanished, and was teleported back outside where Brutus was waiting.

"After we get back to the base and report to the Lioness, you and me are going to have a nice, long chat," Brutus said.

"I thought you might say that," Leonidus replied. In truth, he did have a lot of explaining to do.**

*Ozpin stared grimly at the video footage gone viral of the public execution of Plum Jenta, a member of the council that oversees the island of Patch. Qrow stood beside him watching with a canteen full of beer.

"Hear me now! The Lioness and her Pride is coming! All of you will die, and our kind will no longer be subjected to your discrimination and hate! If you can't accept us, then we can't accept you!" the Faunus with the shotgun in the video declared.

"At least the weather is good," Qrow said.

Ozpin stood up stroking his chin. He muted the news feed and his fist slammed the table. "Got her."

"What do you mean?" Qrow asked.

"It's Signal. Signal is the Lioness. That was a nickname that she was given a while ago, and it stuck."

"But how can you be sure that it's actually her? Do you think Signal is actually capable of doing something like this?" Qrow asked.

Ozpin shut his eyes and shook his head. "I wish she isn't, but we may have to accept the fact that she is now. Either way, it doesn't matter. This is a threat that cannot be ignored. We are protectors of this world, and it is our duty to uphold that position."

"Always so righteous. It gets annoying sometimes," Qrow muttered.

"Sometimes I even annoy myself. I'm going to the island of Patch."

"Wait a minute. Alone?"

"This is my responsibility, Qrow. I caused this to happen. I need to fix my own mistakes," Ozpin said.

Qrow dropped his now-empty canteen on the floor. "No. You don't get it, do you? Not every bad thing that happens is because of you. Get that through your thick skull and maybe I won't have to go the bathroom with you as many times to help you vomit out your dinner."

"That only happened three times in the last year, give or take."

"The point is, Signal decided to send her cronies to kill Plum, not you. She's making those decisions on her own, you have nothing to do with them."

"But if I had not lied not to her—if I had been there for her more—if I was a better teacher for her—."

"Everyone. Makes. Mistakes. I mean, look at me. I'm a mistake with legs. I can't stand to even look at my sister anymore because of the mistakes we made together. I don't want you to walk out that door and leave Beacon until you look me right in the eye and tell me 'it's not my fault'."

Ozpin couldn't look at Qrow. His eyes kept gazing down at the floor his green scarf was growing wet with sweat.

"Look at me," Qrow said.

Ozpin finally got the nerve to look up at Qrow, his red eyes bearing deep into him.

"Tell me it's not your fault."

"It's not my fault."

"Mean it."

Ozpin was starting to hate this, but he knew it was important. "It's not my fault."

Qrow nodded. "Good. Now you can go after Signal personally if that's what you want, but I'm taking me and my team with me there too. We're gonna help you by keeping her cronies out of your path. This threat is something larger that you can't handle on your own, no matter how powerful you think you are. Got it?"

"I hate you."

"Good. I'll go tell the others."

"What about Summer?" Ozpin asked Qrow turned to leave. Qrow stopped and didn't answer for a minute. Finally, he looked back at Ozpin.

"We'll need her. And my sister can help with that part."


	3. Dusk

**AN: Sorry it takes me a while to release each chapter! I already have Chapters 4 and 5 done too but they're going through the proofreading/editing process now. I want to make sure that each chapter is as polished and well-written as they can be, so thank you for your patience! Be sure to leave feedback!**

Leonidus and Brutus stood side by side with their hands clasped behind their backs. They had just come back to the large warehouse that was the Lioness's Pride's base to report to the Lioness herself. When they went in, they found Signal watching the whole news report of what went down on a holoscreen. She paused the feed as soon as the two brothers approached her. Standing next to Signal was her lieutenant, Khol Taurus.

"I assume you're here to give me a report," Signal said. Her words were not a question.

"Yes, ma'm," Leonidus replied. To Leonidus, Signal was a figure of absolute authority. All of the beauty that would attract a man to her that she might have had at some point in the past was gone as far as Leonidus could see it. She was like a goddess who had traded her beauty for the power needed to gain respect and obedience from those she commanded.

"Does it look like I need one?" Signal asked. Her words were hard.

Leonidus stiffened. "No, ma'm."

"Everything was caught on camera. Every juicy detail. The four kingdoms are witnessing this now, and it's an important step in bringing us closer to victory," Signal said.

"In other words: excellent work, boys," Khol said.

Leonidus frowned for a moment, then brightened considerably. "Good. I was confused."

"You are both dismissed. Wait for further orders. We'll have more for you to do sooner than later," Signal said.

Leonidus and Brutus bowed and walked away. Leonidus made sure to take one last glance over his shoulder to look at both Signal and Khol. The relationship between the two were unclear, but there were rumors spreading throughout their band of radicals that their leader and lieutenant had developed somewhat of a romantic relationship, but if there was one, Signal and Khol weren't willing yet to make that clear in public. But if this was true, Leonidus wondered if Signal knew that Khol killed his previous love very shortly after the birth of his son, Adam. He hadn't done it directly, however. He had fed her to a trio of Beowolves somewhere deep in the forest of Forever Falls.

As soon as the brothers turned a corner, Brutus took Leonidus by the shoulder, his grip firm but not violent.

"I'd like to dig nails in your shoulder right now," Brutus said.

"What's your problem?" Leonidus demanded under his breath.

"Why did you throw the knife away from Plum? The plan was that I was supposed to deliver the killing blow," Brutus said.

"I was worried about you. I didn't think—"

"You don't think I'm capable. Don't give me that 'worried' crap. You think I'm not capable enough to handle myself and get the job done," Brutus said.

"You've always been sensitive to our work. You kill more than I openly give you credit for, but—yes—I don't think you would've been capable of this one," Leonidus admitted.

Brutus let go of Leonidus's shoulder and his own shoulders sagged under the weight of his brother's words. "We're supposed to work together. You might as well have not told me to teleport into the banquet, it wouldn't have made a damn difference."

Leonidus couldn't think of anything more to say, because his brother was right. As usual.

"Prove to me that you can be strong and do what needs to be done some other way. I don't honestly care how you do it, just do it," Leonidus said.

He took out his knife with the strands of Brutus's hair tied around the handle and held it out to his brother. "Maybe you'll learn by killing me."

Brutus stared down at the knife in horror. "You wouldn't dare ask me to do that."

"If it means that my brother grows up, then I would have no problem with that."

"I won't do it."

"Suit yourself."

Leonidus returned his knife to his belt. "Don't ever grab me like that again," he said. Though his scowl was clear when he moved on down the hall, so was the pain in his eyes.**

*Ozpin landed his ship in a visitors' hangar in the city of Splotch, with Qrow and the remainder of his team landing right next to him.

All of them met up with the lookout overseeing the hangar. A man shorter than any of them with a trembling finger tracing over the screen of his scroll.

"Huntsmen and Huntresses. Of course," he groaned as he scanned their IDs.

"As soon as we get to the Black Hole, we separate. We can't let any of Signal's spies know we're coming for them," Ozpin said.

Qrow nodded. "Agreed. Me, Summer, and Taiyang will look for other leaders Signal may have at her disposal. We don't leave the Black Hole without taking care of Signal and her cronies."**

*There were many places in the world of Remnant that Ozpin never wanted to step foot in, and the Black Hole was one of them. It was in the top ten.

The sidewalk he walked down was littered with trash. Every building as far as the eye can see had dark, discolored moss creeping up the walls. Most of the few holographic streetlights that were in the Black Hole flickered, threatening to completely shut down.

"Excuse me, sir!" Someone shouted directly in front of Ozpin. Ozpin jumped at the sudden sound and looked straight again to see a young Faunus woman with long white rabbit ears poking from her head and eyes that were structured like perfect circles. Ozpin felt guilty immediately after he thought to look and see if she had buckteeth. She didn't.

What caught Ozpin's attention even more though, was the clothes she was wearing, or, more accurately, lack thereof. She wore an extremely short mini-skirt with every bit of her legs completely exposed, and she wasn't even wearing anything on her feet. Her midriff was also completely exposed.

The saddest part about this was that she couldn't be no older than fourteen.

"For only twenty-five lin, you can have me for the night! You game?" She asked.

Ozpin looked around to see if anyone was watching, possibly her boss. There was no one he could see.

"Follow me," he said.

The rabbit girl follows Ozpin into the lobby of an apartment building and looked around again for any sign of company.

"Just give me some information, and I'll pay you double," Ozpin said.

"Oooh, double?"

"Yes. Tell me, what's the most famous bar around here and where is it? Do you know anyone that hangs around there that I can talk to for information on the Lioness's Pride?" Ozpin asked.

"Oh that would be the Gold Lock. Daddy hangs around there all the time," the girl replied.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Daddy?"

"He takes care of me and makes sure I'm always happy."

"Right," Ozpin said and handed the girl fifty lin, which she gratefully took.

"Are you sure you don't want any of this?" She asked, "Daddy says that I have to beg for it if you don't want it."

"Trust me, the last person you would want to get intimate with is me. Ask the last girl I was with," Ozpin said. In truth, as he walked away, he wouldn't have ever gotten with that rabbit girl. It was wrong, and he wished he could find a way to free her from "Daddy", but his attention had to be dead-set on stopping Signal.**

*The Gold Lock was about exactly what Ozpin expected from a bar in the Black Hole. Dark, with dim lights overhead that transitioned from red to white to black to yellow then back to red again and repeating the cycle.

 _What is it about this world and its fascination with the color red?_

The bartender, with a name tag that read 'Marcus', glanced at Ozpin with a grim stare that tried to stab through his eyes, but he couldn't intimidate Ozpin. Ozpin placed his cane on the bar counter and folded his arms.

"I'm looking for someone that can help me. A huntsman or huntress that can help me fight Faunus radicals. And, the person needs to know this city inside and out," he explained.

Marcus smirked and continued cleaning the inside of the glass he held. "I always say if you need to know a city, ask the rats."

Ozpin scanned the bar, and his eyes fell on someone in the far corner who had his feet propped up on his table and his head resting against the wall.

 _Is that really him? After all this time…_

"I think I found my rat," Ozpin said to Marcus.

The young man in the corner sat straight up when Ozpin approached him. His jet black hair had grown so much longer since the last time Ozpin had seen him and there were shades of shadow highlighting his eyes, indicating he was severely sleep-deprived.

Ozpin sat down across from him and folded his hands with a smile. He decided to keep quiet for a moment, allowing himself to enjoy it.

"Oh no no no, it is not you," the young man said with a nervous smile.

"Hello, Dusk," Ozpin replied.

"Oh Dust, take me now," Dusk said. He stood up and Ozpin followed suit so Dusk could throw his arms around his old friend.

"Look at you, you old bastard. You've already got silver hairs popping up. What have you been doing to yourself?" Dusk asked. He playfully rubbed his fingers between some of Ozpin's hair.

"One word: stress. Tends to knock the years off your life," Ozpin said as he sat back down.

"Please tell me you came all this way from your comfortable tower at Beacon to find me. It would really make my day," Dusk said.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I had no idea you would be here. The fact that you are though—will help me more than you realize right now."

Dusk's expression changed. All the delight and energy in his face had passed away to be replaced with the same grimness Oz first saw him have when he spotted him.

"You're here to stop the Lioness's Pride, aren't you?" Dusk asked.

"Bingo."

Dusk sighed and he picked up the glass of beer he had by him. "You haven't changed a bit. You still believe that you can fix everything."

"I wasn't able to fix a Faunus girl's life earlier. She's in slavery and—not exactly in her right mind because of it. Dusk, I know I cannot change everything, but this is something that I'm meant to deal with," Ozpin said.

"Why this exactly?" Dusk asked.

"Do you remember Signal?"

"Yeah. Always thinking she could be as strong as us by herself."

"She's the Lioness. She's the one that's leading the Lioness's Pride. She used to be a student of mine at Beacon, but she ran away after her friend Onyx died. You weren't there when me and her first met Onyx, but one thing led to another and now Signal wants to exact her revenge on the human race," Ozpin explained.

"And you believe that by confronting her, you can help her have a change of heart because of the goodness that's still in her blah blah blah."

"If this is the sort of attitude you're going to have, then maybe I should just ask for Ironwood's help," Ozpin suggested.

"Please no, not him," Dusk sighed, "I'll help you, for old times' sake, but I can't guarantee you'll see me anymore after we're done. A lot has happened since I left the Emerald Forest."

"And I'm sure you can tell me about that soon enough, but first we need to figure out how this is going to get done," Ozpin said.

Before Ozpin could say anything else however, he felt two hands grab his collar from the back and lift him off his chair. The hands spun him around so he was face-to-face with the man that had grabbed him.

"You must be Daddy," he choked out.

The burly man hurled him across the room. His body hit the counter and he slid across the wood, spilling drinks along the way. Pain sliced through the skin in his back once he reached the edge.

Customers leaped from their seats and started running out to clear the bar.

"Ozpin!" Dusk shouted.

Ozpin sat up and reached out his hand to catch his cane spinning in the air towards him. The burly man, who was 'Daddy', and two other men came after him.

"If you're not going to use my property as advertised then don't use it at all," Daddy yelled.

Ozpin ducked as Daddy swung a lethal punch at him and kicked him square in the chest hard enough for him to jump back. One of the men attempted to do an uppercut to catch Oz's chin, but Ozpin prevented it by grabbing the assailant's wrist and twisting it as hard as he could so that he was almost off his feet in pain. With the other hand he struck the second man with his cane, leaving a gash between the eyes.

Ozpin flipped Broken Wrist over his shoulder, sending his body crashing down on the table next to them. Ozpin whirled around to see Broken Wrist aiming a plasma gun at him, and ducked in time when he fired a scarlet round off. Ozpin twirled the cane so that the butt end caught the plasma and held it there, using the magnetic energy coursing through it. He stabbed that end of the cane into the ground, shattering the plasma into tiny bits that were spat back at Broken Wrist and Gashed Face in a wave of energy, which knocked them out cold.

Daddy lunged at Ozpin again, having managed to avoid the energy blast. He had a long red sword with him this time.

"I remember you now. You worked for Collus at that night club in Vale," Ozpin grunted.

Daddy grinned, flashing not-so-flashy teeth. "You don't have your fat friend with you this time."

"You were taken out by a trumpet," Ozpin pointed out. He remembered everything clearly now, when he and Peter Port visited Collus in his night club to interrogate him about a stolen red cabbage, and things went downhill fast once Ozpin found the cabbage inside the disco ball. It amazed Ozpin that his adventures went from searching for missing cabbages to stopping Faunus terrorists.

Ozpin's cane and Daddy's sword clashed, then clashed again, then the fight turned into a dance, with both the cane and the sword moving in a poetic rhythm, foiling each other's attempts at breaking flesh. Daddy thrust his sword straight over Oz's head as the Headmaster ducked, and it severed off the head of the beer bottle on the counter.

When Daddy's sword-arm was stretched out to the side, Ozpin seized his opportunity to attack his opponent with his cane, calling upon his gifted speed to bombard Daddy with multiple strikes from his cane all over his body, then activate the bubble shield from the cane and collide with Daddy so that he was taken off his feet by the shield.

Dusk, who was still sitting at the table, calmly lowered his head as Daddy's body flew over him and went sailing out the window, shattering glass everywhere.

"Acceptable," Dusk said with an approving nod.

"I never asked for your opinion, I know I did well," Ozpin replied.

Dusk got up and dusted himself as if he was the one that had been fighting. "Clearly you still get yourself into trouble. I could've died."

"But you didn't. He wasn't even looking for you," Ozpin said.

"Sooner or later he probably would have. Now, are we going to get started?"**

*There was no quiet in the Black Hole, even at night. Qrow had to excuse himself from Summer and Taiyang to meet up with his contact in an alley. The contact was there waiting for him with a hood that conveniently hid her eyes.

"You're a coward. You know that, right?" Qrow asked.

"I don't believe Ozpin knows everything about what he went through after Gray's death."

"So you're okay with Tai being with Summer?"

"I want him to be happy. He thinks I'm dead. It should probably stay that way for now, and Summer is a good person, he deserves to have someone like her. Someone who's better than me."

"So why am I meeting you here then?" Qrow asked.

"I fear for Summer's life and the life of her child just like you and Taiyang do. Take Summer to the underground cave beneath the city. There you will find an answer to Summer's problem. She needs to be strong in this time while she bears the child, and that strength will grant her the ability to fight while pregnant."

"And you're not coming with?" Qrow asked.

"No. I'm leaving the city. You won't be seeing me again. Not for a long time," Raven Branwen replied.

"I don't know if I can wish you the best," Qrow said with an irritated shrug.

Raven smiled. "You've never had to. You know I always make it through."

"That's—not what I meant."

"Goodbye, brother."

Qrow left the alley without saying goodbye back. She was already gone before he could.


	4. The Thief's Shadow

**AN: Back with another chapter. This one is particularly dark as it focuses more on the black market aspect of the Black Hole. Think Daredevil-dark.**

*Walking through the Black Hole was no walk in the park for Qrow, Taiyang, and Summer. Qrow was drinking a large red slurpie, and the sounds he made were enough to make Taiyang's and Summer's eyes twitch.

"I love how you're taking this so seriously," Summer remarked.

"It's either this or I drink myself to death. I figured you guys wanted me to be sober for this hunt," Qrow shot back.

Summer and Taiyang stopped, looked at each other, then turned to face Qrow. "You believe this mission is just as important as we do," Summer said.

Qrow sighed while he stirred the flavored ice in his cup. "Believe me, I do. But let's be honest, just like Ozpin, we don't really even know where to start."

"Eeeeee!"

"Did you say something?" Qrow asked Taiyang.

Taiyang shook his head vehemently. "That—wasn't me."

"It was me," the mystery voice said behind the three of them. All three - some of the most powerful warriors on Remnant - jumped at the sound of the voice and the sight of the young Faunus girl with rabbit ears standing behind them.

"You said that you don't know where to start. Have you ever been to this part of town before?" the girl asked.

"Uh, not really. I live on the island, but I've never walked through the Black Hole," Qrow explained.

"You need someone to guide you around then?" the girl asked, her black eyes somehow sparkling.

"And who are you?" Taiyang asked, hidden behind Summer.

"My name is Krystal," the girl replied.

"Where are your parents, Krystal?" Qrow asked.

"Daddy's in the hospital right now. Some meanie beat the crap out of him so he's gonna be hospitalized for a few days," Krystal said.

"Qrow, can I talk to you in private for a minute?" Summer asked.

Summer pulled Qrow and Taiyang aside. "We're going to let her lead us around."

"Her? She's a little—crazy," Qrow said weakly.

"I have a step-daughter now, and I'm about to have my own child. I can't bear to see this young lady walk around here at night, especially wearing something like that," Summer said. She couldn't help but motion towards Krystal to show her point, but Krystal was too busy humming to herself and marveling at the stars above to notice.

"I don't think its as simple as that, Summer," Qrow said.

"What do you mean?"

He winced. "Think about it. You're smart."

It didn't take long for it to dawn on Summer. Tears rose in her eyes when she realized what Qrow was indicating.

"Oh. Oh."

"Uh-huh."

"She's coming with us."

"Yep, I didn't think I would be able to argue with you after that."

"It may not be what we want, but maybe it's what she needs," Taiyang pointed out.

Within a second, Qrow found himself standing in front of Krystal again with his sweaty hands clasped behind his back. He took note of the visible tremors through her naked legs, and her trembling hands that fingered her skirt.

"Okay, Krystal. We decided that we'd like you to guide us around the town," he said.

"Wonderful! What are we waiting for then?" Krystal replied.

"Hopefully a miracle," Qrow muttered, quiet enough so no one could hear him.**

*Robin tore the packet of white crystals ground into dust open and handed it over to his customer. The consumer took it and breathed in a whiff of it. A bright smile coursed across his face.

"It's beautiful," he said.

Robin rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "The best I have on the market. Worth a pretty price."

The consumer looked at Robin with his face tilted to the side. With a sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of lin. "Just take it. All of it."

Robin greedily snatched up the lin and deposited it all into a large bag already full of lin.

"Always a pleasure. Anything else I can do for you? You look like someone who could use a night of fun. I've got a lovely Faunus who's desperate for some lin to feed her illegitimate son," Robin said.

The consumer's eyes brightened and he licked his lips. "Bring her out. Let me see her," he said.

Robin snapped his fingers, and one of his men disappeared into the back and came out with a young Faunus girl who was in her late teens. Her eyes were wide with fear, but were also slightly hopeful with the promise of money on the line.

"You can take a more thorough look at her if you want, whatever you need to do before you buy," Robin said.

Suddenly, Robin felt a sharp bloody burst of pain in his arm. He screamed and dropped his bag of lin, scattering coins all over the floor. Through the blinding pain and the blurred vision, he saw a tall young man running up to him with his hands covering his mouth.

"Oh, oh I'm so sorry. I was aiming for the wall. It was just supposed to be a scare tactic," he said.

"You idiot!" Robin screamed. His customer turned and ran for the door. The young man let him go.

"Here, let me help you with that," the man said. Before Robin could protest, the man grabbed the handle of the knife that was in his arm, and pulled and pulled until it slid out, spilling blood onto the floor.

"There we go, all better," the man said cheerfully.

"What do you want?" Robin cried, trying desperately to stop the bleeding in his arm. Warm, thick scarlet liquid slithered down his hand.

"Information. Tell me, have any of your customers lately been Faunus? Maybe perhaps someone from the Lioness's Pride?" the man asked.

"I—don't know. Geez, man, it's deep - to the bone," Robin whined. No matter how hard he tried to stop the bleeding with his hand, more blood spilled down his arm and dripped onto the floor.

The man grabbed Robin by the throat and hoisted him over the counter and held him against it. "Don't screw with me. Not all Faunus from the Lioness's Pride are the same, some are junkies just like the rest of the scum that come in here."

The man that had brought the girl in moved to attack the man. "No, no! Don't!" Robin screamed.

"I will not ask you again. Has anyone from the Lioness's Pride come here?"

"I—I think so. Yeah, yesterday. He was complaining about not being allowed to be part of the assassination! The assassination of that bastard Plum—"

"Did he give his name?" the man demanded.

"N-no—I swear! But I have a security camera in here. Check the footage. I can help you."

The man let go of Robin and dusted his shirt. "Good lad. Show me."

Thankfully, the man allowed Robin to use his own Aura to heal the gaping wound in his arm before showing him the security footage, then booted it up and rewound to the time the Faunus customer came in. He pointed at the customer on the screen for the man to see.

"Right there. That's him," he said.

The man took a moment to observe the customer's face, then silently nodded. "Well done. That wasn't so hard."

The man looked at the terrified Faunus slave girl standing by and for one hopeful moment, Robin thought he was thinking about buying her.

"You know I can't free you," the man said.

The girl nodded, as if in understanding.

"Where will you go if I do?" the man asked.

"This is the best place for me to be right now," the girl replied.

The man nodded, and before Robin could say anything else, he was gone.**

*The Faunus Reginald closed and locked his hotel room door, trying to keep his head straight up that his hangover was holding down. The empty beer bottle he held in his hand trembled thanks to the tremors coursing through his arm and hand.

When he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with a young human man who was smiling at him underneath his hood.

"Where you headed?" The man asked.

Reginald moved for the sword in his sheath, and in a flash of metal, his severed hand fell to the floor. He screamed, gripping the stump of flesh, the pain not fully registering for another second.

Someone down the hall opened his room door and peered out. "What's going on here?" He demanded.

The man raised his sword so that he was pointing the tip at the bystander. Reginald's blood dripped from it.

"Go back inside. Nothing to see here," he said.

The bystander's eyes widened at the sight of the man's sword and retreated back into his room. The man returned his attention to Reginald and grabbed him by the shoulders. He spun him around so that he was facing the door.

"Unlock the door," he ordered him.

Through the pain, Reginald used his scroll to unlock his door and opened it up.

"Get in," the man said.

"Listen, man. I don't know what this is about, but I—aaah!" Reginald felt a sharp pinch in his back from the man's sword.

"That chair over there. Sit. Down," the man ordered.

Reginald raised his hands and sat down on the chair next to the bed. He watched the man survey his surroundings, taking special interest in the collection of empty beer bottles on the desk. He picked one of the full bottles up.

"How are you even remotely useful to the Lioness?" The man asked.

"S-sanitation," Reginald replied.

The man laughed. If laughter could kill, Reginald would be long-dead.

"Sanitation? Where? The Lioness's base?" The man asked.

Reginald flew up from his chair and attempted to use his Semblance on his tormenter. Using telekinesis, he threw the desk at the man, scattering bottles everywhere. The man rolled out of the way just in time, and his sword came out again, this time the side of the blade caught Reginald in the side. Blood leaked from the wound, staining the blade.

"Where is the Lioness's base?" The man demanded.

Reginald spat blood. "34th and 25th. The old Huntsman school."

The man grinned from ear to ear. The hand that held his sword was covered in blood and something bright was coursing through his body. He returned his sword to his sheath and Reginald could clearly see that the man's hand was stained with blood with tiny holes in the skin of his palm.

"What are you doing? I told you what you wanted," Reginald begged.

He watched the desk get picked up from the floor by an invisible force, and it wasn't him controlling it this time. The bed rose up in the air too, spilling the mattress and covers onto the floor. The wood cabinet was ripped out of the wall and the dresser was picked up too. Soon, the man had several things in the air, all made out of wood.

Reginald realized what had happened. Horror surged through his bloodstream.

The man had taken his Semblance.

He felt something smash into him and his body was pinned to the wall. Several things crashed and he felt a weight push him against the wall harder and harder. Then he heard a loud, deafening crunch that he realized came from him and everything went black.**

*Leonidus strode alongside Signal as he allowed her to observe the Faunus soldiers sitting in the energy shields caging them within.

"And they all willingly volunteered?" Signal asked.

"Yes. They are all aware that they are doing this for our people. They will have it no other way," Leonidus replied.

There was a scream, and Leonidus jerked his attention over to a male Faunus soldier. The sound was torn from his throat as he stared down at his hands, which were quickly growing black and furry. Long claws extended from his fingertips and his eyes began to change color to a blood-red.

"He will still have his mind together, but he will also have the instinct of a Grimm. The perfect combination for the perfect pet," Leonidus said.

"Yes. It's beautiful," Signal replied with wide, glowing eyes.

Inside the holographic cage, the turning Faunus screamed and hollered and beat his hands against the bars. His clothes started tearing away, exposing large parts of his naked body as it also began sprouting fur and stretched out to reform the body of a Beowolf.

"Let him out," Signal ordered.

Leonidus's eyes widened. "My lady, are you sure?"

"That's an order. Let him out."

Leonidus took several steps back and pressed a button the remote he held to control the cages, and the one containing the new Beowolf Faunus hybrid winked out of sight. A vicious, starving grin spread across the Wolf-Faunus's face and its eyes locked on to Signal.

"My lady—."

"No. Don't," Signal replied, holding her hand up to keep Leonidus back. He gulped. What was the Lioness doing?

Finally, the Wolf-Faunus ran at Signal and tackled her to the floor. Signal quickly recovered and raised her arm in front of her face as if that would protect her from the thing's fangs. The Wolf-Faunus glanced at her arm, and without another second's hesitation, it opened its jaw and clamped its teeth deep into her arm.

Leonidus flinched and almost moved to save her, but then realized that Signal hadn't even so much as flinched herself. A grin revealing all her teeth stretched across her face and her eyes narrowed. Leonidus could hear flesh being shredded and something wet accompanying it.

The Wolf-Faunus let go of Signal's arm, and Leonidus could see her blood staining its fangs. He looked at her arm, expecting to see a bloody, torn mess. Instead, her arm was glowing, and the wound that the Wolf-Faunus had left behind was closing itself up and healing.

She was using her Aura.

Signal reached up and touched the side of the Wolf-Faunus's face, smiling triumphantly.

"My child, your allegiance is to me now," she said. The Wolf lapped up the rest of the blood left behind on her arm and stiffened as if standing at attention.

"The rest of these people. They are your responsibility to command when I give the orders," Signal said.

The Wolf-Faunus shook its head in what appeared to be a nod. "Yes, Lioness," it spoke.

Leonidus finally relaxed, feeling himself regain his breath and he picked back up the remote he had dropped in the midst of the horror that shot through his spine.

"The experiment was a success. If people read books more often, they would gain more power than they can think possible," Signal said, getting back up onto her feet.

"Transferring some of your own Dust into the hybrid is risky," Leonidus pointed out.

"But I'm still in one piece, am I not?" Signal asked, spreading her bitten arm out for Leonidus to see better.

"You are—full of surprises, Lioness," Leonidus said.

Signal only smiled and moved on.**

*On the roof of a tall office building with a burnt out neon sign that said 'Schnee', Ozpin sat waiting for Dusk to come back with information. He had sent him to find someone who can tell him where Signal's base of operations was. As for Ozpin, he needed time to be alone and think first. Dusk was going to be back any minute with an address, and Ozpin needed to prepare himself for his inevitable confrontation with Signal. What was he really going to say to her? How was he going to convince her to stop without having to kill her? No matter how much he knew it would probably come down to that, he couldn't bear the idea of doing it, no matter how far off the straight path Signal had wandered.

The sound of striding boots disrupted Ozpin's exhausted thoughts and he opened his eyes and turned his head to see Dusk heading towards him.

"Do you have an address?" Ozpin asked.

Half a smile snaked across Dusk's face. "Nice to see you too."

"Dusk, please."

"Yeah, yeah. I know where to go," Dusk said. He moved past Ozpin to stare out at the Black Hole with downtown Splotch displayed further out.

"Furthest you've been away from home in a while?" Dusk asked.

"I—can't remember the last time I've left Vale," Ozpin admitted.

"That's obvious. You asked me to find what you're looking for."

"Because I needed time to figure out how I'm going to do this."

"Let me go with you to face her then. You know already that she won't stop what she's doing," Dusk said.

"You don't know that. I know her better than you do," Ozpin replied, standing up.

"Apparently you don't. You had no idea that Signal was capable of becoming the person that she is now."

"You're right about that," Ozpin admitted, "but I do know that Signal is capable of changing her mind and making the right decision, and that's what I intend on believing when I walk in to see her. Now tell me, where is her base of operations?"

Dusk sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. Ozpin noticed that one of his outer pockets was stained with blood. However Dusk got the information they needed, it did not pan out in a civilized manner.

"Alright, I'll tell you."

Ozpin felt his heart freeze instantly as his breath prepared itself to hang on to every word.


	5. Bittersweet Reunion

**AN: A new chapter out sooner than I usually post them. Remember, all of these chapters are edited and polished by Elfin Maid. I highly recommend you check out her stories too.**

*Qrow collapsed in a chair in the corner of his hotel room, trying to recollect his bearings. It was a hard thing to do though, considering that Krystal was his roommate by Summer's insistence. Summer and Taiyang got their own room together, and Qrow got stuck with Krystal.

Krystal was pacing back and forth in the room. She could never stop moving. She was like a machine with no 'off' switch. It was annoying to Qrow, but at the same time, a little sad.

"Right, well, I think we're going to bed," Qrow said.

"But Daddy says I'm not allowed to sleep," Krystal replied.

"Yeah, well, your Daddy ain't here right now, so you take orders from me now."

Krystal pulled out a small bottle from her pocket and popped the cap off with her teeth.

"What's that?" Qrow demanded.

"A fruity drink to keep me awake," Krystal said.

Qrow snatched the bottle from her and looked at the label. It was a special drug using a combination of different crystals that was meant to keep someone wide awake and energetic. It also happened to be watermelon-flavored.

"No way am I going to let you drink this while I'm here," Qrow said.

"Give it back," Krystal demanded.

With a sly grin, Qrow threw the bottle out the open window. Krystal produced a spare bottle from her other pocket. Qrow grabbed that too and threw it out the window.

"You're a meanie!" Krystal yelled.

"Yeah, well this meanie is the only one you've got for a while. Now, do you have any spare clothes?"

"No."

"Then you can borrow some of Summer's," Qrow said, taking a set of pajamas out of the dresser that Summer had given him for Krystal. "They're a little—oversized. But they'll keep you comfortable."

Krystal took the pajamas, set them on the foot of the bed, and proceeded with taking off her clothes.

"Wait, hold on! Geez, will you please go do that in the bathroom? I understand no one minded when Daddy was around, but I mind."

When Krystal came out of the bathroom, Qrow couldn't help but smile at her appearance. Though Summer was a short woman, Krystal's hands still didn't so much as peek out of her sleeves, and she looked like she was in danger of tripping over the pants.

"Comfortable?" Qrow asked.

"Are you kidding? These things are awful! They're so itchy and big and I can't even feel my—"

Krystal didn't even get to finish her long-winded sentence, because she fell over and immediately fell asleep, snoring and all.

Qrow sighed and picked Krystal up, which felt more like carrying a bodybag with how big Summer's pajamas were compared to Krystal. He set her on her bed, making sure her head rested comfortably on her pillow. She looked so peaceful in her sleep.

 _Peaceful. Now that's a word I never thought I would use to describe her._

Qrow sat on his bed across from her and watched. So it really was the drug that was keeping her awake and hyper. Now she was sleeping as if she hadn't slept in years.

A chilling thought came to Qrow that it was possible that that was actually the case.

He jumped when Krystal's eyes flew wide open. "Hey, Mr. Qrow?"

"W-what?"

"That guy with the yellow hair. Is he married to the lady in the white robe?" Krystal asked.

"Um, yes?"

"That's okay, he probably won't stay wi—," Krystal drifted back to sleep, her words faded out.

Qrow shook his head and drilled one ear with his finger. "I need a drink," he said. He got up to go fetch one. **

*Signal watched Leonidus from a distance behind him with Khol Taurus standing next to her. Signal never fancied herself a public speaker. She was the voice of the Lioness's Pride, but she believed Leo was better at transmitting that voice through speeches, while she transmitted the voice through her actions and her leadership.

"I just want you to put on a good show to encourage our brothers and sisters. Would that be too difficult for you?" She had asked Leo.

"Heh, not in the least. What do you want me to tell them?" Leo asked.

"Everything we want."

Leo stood tall and proud on the stage of an abandoned Huntsman school. The warriors belonging to the Lioness's Pride stood together near the front by the stage while row upon row of White Fang extremists stood behind them.

When Leo started speaking, his voice and his passion even surprised Signal.

"Brothers and sisters! We stand here united for one cause! A cause not envisioned by any human or outsider, but a cause only for our sake! Our freedom! Our liberty! And any human that dares try to stand against us, will meet his fate! Brothers and sisters of the White Fang—the true White Fang—the time for the humans' rule is coming to its last days!"

The Lioness's Pride raised their weapons in the air with a cry, and the White Fang soldiers behind them followed suit.

"Let this be a day of reckoning! A day where the humans will realize that their time is coming to an end! For the Lioness!" Leo screamed.

Leo's eyes were wild with passion and his scowl broke into a giddy grin. The crowd as a whole broke into a monstrous cheer, sending chills down Signal's spine even though she was ultimately the one leading this cause. It was because Leo did it. She was right to give Leo the job to raise her people up.

"For the Lioness! For the Lioness!"

You would be proud of me, Jasper.

Leo turned, walked back by Signal and stopped for a moment.

"Not too shabby right?" He asked with a grin.

"That was exquisite," Signal replied with an approving wink.

"I know," Leo said before walking away.

Now Signal was looking at herself in the mirror. Her dark, knife-like eyes were staring back at her. Despite the fire in her eyes, there was still a glint of beauty there. That beauty that had caught the attention of people like Auburn and Onyx.

Both of which were dead.

"You look beautiful today," she said to her reflection.

For a second, a bright white light flashed across her body and a clone of her stood behind her. What made this clone different however, was that its eyes were not Signal's, they were Onyx's, an old friend that died after attempting to kill the Huntsman Qrow.

"Why are you trying to find approval in yourself?" the clone asked, walking up next to Signal.

"If I don't approve of myself, then my followers won't approve of me," Signal said. "It was easy for my brother to win their approval because he is a man. I am a woman."

"And that should stop you?" The clone with Onyx's voice asked.

"Of course not."

"Then don't let it. You already know that."

Signal didn't answer. She was bent over with her hands on the table, staring intently at herself. She shouldn't be obsessed with this. Even in death, Onyx was trying to nudge her in the direction she knew was right.

Signal started at the sound of a knock on her door. When she turned, the clone was gone.

"Yes? What is it?" She called out.

In stepped one of her companions Brutus, the twin brother of Leonidus. He bowed at the sight of her.

"Lioness, Professor Ozpin from Beacon Academy is waiting to speak with you. He refuses to leave until he's able to see you," he reported.

Signal's eyes widened. Ozpin was here? After all this time, he was finally coming to see her?

The thought excited her and she couldn't help but allow half a smile to appear on her lips.

"Tell him I'm on my way," she said.

"Yes ma'm. And ma'm?"

"Yes, Brutus?"

"If you don't mind me saying, I think you look beautiful today," Brutus said.

That reminded Signal all too much of Auburn. He said something like that to her once, right before he died.

"Thank you Brutus. I'll be right out."

Brutus bowed again and left, leaving Signal to try and gather herself back together. She wanted to look presentable to Ozpin, like she had it all together.**

*Ozpin stood with both hands clamped over the top of his cane, expecting the worst. He wished he didn't have to.

Then a door swung open open, and in stepped Signal Belladonna. She looked—sick.

A severe lack of sleep, an underlying wild ambition, and an anxiety that she looked like she was trying so hard to hide was all evident on her face, especially in her eyes. There was only a small hint of that beauty Ozpin remembered still there, but all the negatives seemed to distort her features a little bit.

There were many times over the last year that Ozpin wished Glynda was with him, but none of those times were as powerful and painful as this time. Glynda would have known exactly what to do in this situation.

Signal grinned, revealing spotless, straight teeth, and that childishness Ozpin recognized in Signal came bubbling up to the surface.

"Ozpin!" She said.

Despite the circumstances, Ozpin smiled back. "Hello, Signal."

Signal ran up to Ozpin and threw her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Its been a long time."

Ozpin reluctantly returned the embrace, but it was hard to keep his act together. "You didn't have to leave."

Signal let go and looked him right in the eyes. "I had to. You understand that."

 _No, I don't._

Ozpin decided not to say that out loud. Signal was like a time bomb. Cut the wrong wire, and she would explode. She was that fragile.

"How is Blake?" Ozpin asked.

"Blake is fine. Better than she's ever been. Better than she was with that crap-bag Qrow," Signal replied.

Ozpin looked around at the Faunus soldiers standing by watching intently with their arms folded. "You've built yourself quite a reputation."

Signal didn't stop smiling. "Yes. You don't know yet, do you? I'm Jasper's sister."

Well then. That explains why it was so easy for Signal to become a leader of a group of Faunus radicals.

Ozpin raised his eyebrow. "And your position in that bloodline gives you authority."

"Not just authority, my dear. Power. And these people—my people—are with me until the end."

"So you believe that what you're doing is right? All of it?" Ozpin asked.

"Of course! I was under the impression that you would be proud of me," Signal replied.

Ozpin stifled a groan. "I am proud of you, Signal. But not for this."

Signal's expression finally changed, and that glorious smile she had faded into nothing. She sighed and turned to her soldiers. "Leave us," she commanded.

Within seconds, Signal and Ozpin were the only ones in the room. Signal walked over to a table, picking up a bottle of wine and pouring two glasses full.

"I know I won't be able to get you to fully understand," she said, handing one of the glasses to Ozpin. Ozpin took it but didn't take a sip from it.

"Try me. Because it's obvious that you understand all of it."

Signal's smile returned, and it brought the ache back into Ozpin's heart. "Okay. Well think of it this way. Everything that we've been doing—everything that we've been working to accomplish—it's for the same reasons that you had to stop people like my brother Jasper and Gray."

"How so?"

"Their ambitions were flawed. Their minds were corrupt. They were trying to do evil acts because that's what they felt passionate about, even though they were wrong. You had to stop them. The humans are our enemies, and they have nothing but ill intent for us, so I'm destroying them for one reason—the protection of my people," Signal explained.

"I feel very strongly, Signal, that another reason for what you're doing is to have revenge."

"Ozpin, revenge is a strong word. I prefer 'salvation'. I'm doing what should have been done long ago, so that people like Qrow and Gray won't hurt us just because they feel superior to us. There's a difference, my dear. We're not destroying the humans because we feel superior to them. We're destroying them for our protection."

Ozpin's impatience began to spike and he felt his grip on his cane tighten. "Protection? What about the people who haven't lifted a finger to discriminate you? Who hasn't even uttered one discriminatory word against you? Have you ever thought about separating the good from the bad? Don't you think the good ones deserve to keep their lives?"

Signal straightened her shoulders and took another sip of her wine. "When a red crystal is dropped into a pool, does it just affect the spot that its been dropped in? Or does it affect the entire pool?"

It was becoming increasingly obvious to Ozpin what needed to be done at this point, as painful as it was.

"Do you believe that I'm worth being kept alive then?"

Signal reached up to touch Ozpin's cheek. "Of course you are! You're my friend. You've done nothing to harm me, and you've always been honest."

Ozpin took Signal's hand and gently pulled it away from his cheek. "That's not true, Signal. There's something I need to tell you."

Signal's expression changed again, this time she looked nervous, as if Ozpin was about to use his cane against her to hurt her.

"It's about Blake. She's not your daughter. She was Onyx's. Your child died when you birthed him, so Auburn took Onyx's newborn child and placed it in your hands so that it would like you had a living child. You named the child and everything—but—biologically, she is not your daughter. I also knew all along that Qrow was taking care of Blake. I'm—so sorry, Signal."

Signal took several steps back. Her hand holding her wine was trembling so hard that drops of wine was falling out and hitting the floor. "You're lying," she muttered.

"Why would I lie to you now? No, it's the truth."

"You're lying."

"Signal—"

"You're lying!" Signal screamed. She threw her glass in Ozpin's direction. Ozpin stepped to the side and watched the glass smash against the wall and shatter into pieces.

How poetic. It's like Signal's heart breaking now.

"How can you say that to me? After everything you know I've been through, how can you say that to me!" Signal screamed.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't take this well," Ozpin admitted with his hands raised.

"All that time you knew I was looking for her—all that time you lied to my face—you hid the truth from me all this time!" Signal screamed.

"And do you understand now why I did? Listen to yourself. See how you're acting right now," Ozpin said.

"Because you think I'm dangerous. Because you don't think I can handle the truth and take care of her!"

Ozpin felt helpless at this point. What was he supposed to say now?

"You are dangerous, Signal. You just refuse to see that. Qrow and his team are in the Black Hole right now trying to learn how to defeat the Lioness's Pride, because we can't allow you to continue your violent acts."

Signal's eyes widened. They grew so large, it was a wonder that her eyeballs didn't simply pop out. "Qrow and his team are here? Summer…."

 _What about her?_

Signal's face twisted again, and it was uglier than Ozpin had ever seen it.

"I will have my men hunt Summer down. I will kill Qrow personally, and I will use Summer's power to bring Onyx back. Don't think I can do that, because I can!"

"Signal, you can't—"

"I'm giving you a ten-second warning, my old friend, and if you're not out of this building by then, I will kill you! Do you hear me!? I will tear you to pieces!"

Ozpin slowly backed away with his hands still raised. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he could tell that Signal was already preparing her Semblance in case he didn't leave. He wasn't prepared for this. With how angry Signal was, she could easily get herself killed, whether it's by Ozpin's hand or even her own, and he couldn't bear the thought.

"Goodbye, Signal," he said, before turning and running out.

He bolted out of the building, turning and slamming the door behind him. He leaned against it, breathing heavily.

"So how'd it go?" Dusk asked behind him.

Ozpin's face was wet with sweat and tears. His tiny glasses were slipping down his nose and his vision was hopelessly blurred.

"It exceeded expectations," Ozpin said.

Despite everything, at least my sense of humor remains intact, he thought bitterly.

"So what now?" Dusk asked.

Ozpin let go of the door and turned to face his friend. "We have to come up with a new strategy. Signal is not going to listen to me."


	6. Faunus Grimm

The little Faunus girl with the cat ears stood up and a joyful grin burst across her face when her eyes spotted her mother coming into her room. The mother had tears streaming down her face. Her mascara was a wet, black mess, staining the little girl's shirt when she embraced her mother.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," the mother whispered. The little girl didn't know why her mother was so upset, and it puzzled her to see her mother cry.

 _Why is mommy crying?_

The little girl's friend, a boy named Adam, came up to Signal. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'll be okay, thank you Adam," Signal replied, wiping away the last of her tears. She couldn't allow Blake to see her like that. She didn't want Blake to become sad too just because Signal was utterly crushed.

"I've seen you in a better state than this," someone said behind Signal. It was Khol. Dear Khol that was almost always by her side wherever she went.

Signal took his hand and pulled him into the hallway so she could talk to him in private.

"Ozpin told me terrible things. He told me that Blake is not my daughter. That my real child came out of the womb dead, and Blake was just given to me to fool me into thinking my child survived," she said. She could barely hold back the tears. It hurt so much to try and hold it all back and keep from breaking.

"How could he say those things to you?" Khol demanded. "He said that to make you let your guard down!"

"I—I don't know. I know when Ozpin is telling the truth. I saw it in his eyes, Khol. . ."

"But you didn't know when he was lying, did you?"

Khol had a point.

"What are you saying? That he lied to me about Blake not being my child?"

Khol nodded. "And now he's here to stop you from achieving what the Lioness's Pride stands for, and he's brought his friends to help him wipe us out. In the process, Blake could die too. Is that what you want?"

"No."

"Then listen very closely, my dear. Whether or not what Ozpin said is true doesn't matter. You have Blake now. You take care of her, and she's happier because of it. You must focus on destroying Ozpin and his team before they get to us."

Signal didn't answer. She didn't show any sign of agreement, but inside, she couldn't disagree either.

A hint of a smile slipped through Khol's features. "I think it's near time to allow our experiments to be tested in action. Send Leonidus and Brutus to lead our pack of Faunus Grimm against Ozpin and his friends. Let them pay for all the harm they've caused you, me, and our people."

 _He's right. Of course he's right, he always is._

"Yes. Yes. I'll give the order," Signal said.**

*"I kind of tried warning you about this," Dusk pointed out to Ozpin as they trudged down the sidewalk.

"I know. You've only reminded me half a dozen times within ten minutes."

"What am I doing with you, Ozpin? How exactly am I useful to you?" Dusk asked, throwing his arms up.

"You're a companion. I can't do this alone, I know I can't," Ozpin replied.

"Oh, I get it now, you're lonely. You can't do anything by yourself without freaking out. You used to have someone with you all the time. Didn't you?" Dusk said.

Ozpin stopped and bowed his head with his eyes tightly shut.

Glynda.

"Something like that."

Dusk sighed. "You haven't changed a bit. You're still the coward I remember."

"I don't remember you being one to tear me down all the time."

"But I remember you saying all the time that you wanted to be a Huntsman. Fearless, driven to succeed. Powerful. Even that bastard Taiyang is braver than you are. You're incapable of facing your own problems."

"I told the truth! The truth I had been holding back from Signal for so long. That's not bravery?" Ozpin asked.

Dusk thrust his hood over his head. "It's a start. But now you're in bigger trouble then you were before because of that."

Ozpin was getting tired of admitting to himself that Dusk was right. Again and again and again.

"So what's the plan now then? And what can I do to help?" Dusk asked.

Before Ozpin could reply, he heard a loud animal howl.

That wasn't just any animal. It was a Beowolf.

Ozpin looked to see several Beowolves bolting down the street towards him and Dusk. Two armored figures riding on motorcycles followed close behind them.

"Aw, crap," Dusk said wearily.

"Yep," Ozpin replied.

They leaped out of the way as the Beowolves caught up to them. Ozpin's feet landed on the roof of a parked car and he twirled his cane in his hand, ready to face the new threat. As one Beowolf leaped after him, Oz struck his cane down on the car and his green shield exploded outward. The wolf collided against it and was forced backwards, crashing through the wall of a used goods store. Gunfire smashed into the side of the car and Ozpin realized that it came from one of the motorcycle riders who had a machine gun in one hand. The back window exploded and several shots missed Ozpin's feet by only several inches. Keeping his shield on, Ozpin launched himself at the rider. He tackled him off of his motorcycle and the two fell and rolled away. Pain exploded through Oz's temples and he felt his Aura take a big hit.

The rider rolled to his feet, removing his helmet to reveal a bull's horns, with one broken at the tip. Ozpin didn't hesitate to lash out at him. He leaped with his cane ready to strike down. The horned Faunus raised a small device that transformed into a shield. Ozpin's cane collided with the shield, and a terrifying rift belted out, shattering the windows of every building and car nearby and causing the concrete below them to crack. Ozpin's ears rang so loud he barely heard anything. He stumbled and tried to regain his balance. He saw Dusk come down from the sky in front of him with his long sword out. Dusk swung his sword at the Faunus dozens of times, each attack getting blocked by the Faunus's shield.

Then Ozpin saw something that almost made him impressed with his own enemies.

The other rider, whose helmet was also off now revealing a bull's ears, was standing next to his partner now with a sword. Dusk proceeded to try fighting both of them, while the two opponents passed the shield and the sword between each other to spend a little time wielding each in turn. Once Dusk would start to gain the upper hand on one of the riders when the rider would have his shield, the shield would instantly change to the sword while the other rider was holding the shield, and the rider with the sword would be able to surprise Dusk with an unexpected attack that drove him back.

Ozpin heard a Beowolf coming for him from the right. In a diagonal arc, he cut the incoming Beowolf down, slicing its head off in the process. Then something caught Ozpin's eye. The Beowolf's eyes were not like a usual wolf's eyes. They looked almost—human. On top of that, the body of the wolf was not fading away as all creatures of Grimm usually did when they were killed. These beasts were—different.

They used to be human. Or Faunus.

Ozpin jerked his head to the side to avoid a spinning dagger cutting through the air, and someone's hand gripped his shoulder with the other hand holding the knife at his throat.

"How disappointing. She warned us you were very powerful," Leonidus said.

"Teleportation," Ozpin said, almost curiously. He had heard that people from within the same family had the ability to teleport to each other using a weapon containing a sample of their DNA.

"Runs in our family," Leonidus said, confirming Ozpin's thoughts.

Dusk had the tip of his sword at Brutus's throat. Brutus grinned and his body instantly vanished, and reappeared at Leonidus's side.

"What are you going to do about this, eh?" Leonidus asked.

"You're right," Dusk answered. Ozpin's expression changed. That wasn't what he expected.

"Some companion you have here, Ozpin," Brutus said. He started to laugh, as if he had just heard the funniest joke. His laughter was suddenly cut off and replaced by a loud, pained gasp. Ozpin craned his neck enough to see Dusk behind Brutus with the blade of his sword sticking through Brutus's back.

"Brutus!" Leonidus screamed.

"Ah! Damn it!" Brutus exclaimed. He snatched up his own knife and threw it across the street, vanishing to reappear where the knife fell. Leonidus teleported himself after him, releasing Ozpin in the process. Ozpin fell to his knees.

That's when the rain started.

More Faunus-Beowolves kept coming.

"I'll go after the assassins. Take care of the wolves," Dusk said.

"Are you sure?"

"I managed to stab one of them."

"Good point," Ozpin said. So Dusk had used his Semblance to temporarily gain Brutus's. That was how he was able to get behind Brutus.

Ozpin nodded to Dusk and he vanished.

"Relentless," Ozpin said. He swung his cane up, tossing an incoming wolf away. Another wolf swiped its claws to tear across Ozpin's face. Ozpin fell backwards and landed on his back on the sidewalk. He watched the wolf stand up on two feet, a grin spread across its face that sent violent shivers down Oz's spine. Ozpin ballooned his shield back up just in time as the wolf slashed its claws downward at him. The wolf's hands collided with the shield and snapped off at the wrists. Black mist trailed from the stumps. The Beowolf stared down in shock and let loose a small, pathetic whimper.

"Sorry for this," Ozpin said, then he deactivated the shield and a silver blade popped out of the bottom of the cane, allowing him to stick it into the wolf.**

*Rain was soaking Leonidus's outfit. Water and blood coursed down his hands as he guided his wounded brother along. His heart beat so hard out of his chest it was a wonder that it hadn't exploded out by now.

"I need to stop," Brutus moaned.

"Just a little further. I want to make sure they're not coming after us," Leonidus rasped.

Ozpin's companion suddenly materialized in front of them. "That's a really handy knife. You should keep it on you all the time," he remarked.

Despite his stab wound in the back, Brutus attempted to decapitate Dusk with his black sword but Dusk already had his sword out to block the move. A fiendish smile split across Dusk's face and he let loose a chilling laugh.

"Careful, Brutus!" Leonidus cried out. He unfolded his shield and hurled it at Dusk, begging to whatever god that may be out there that it hit him. Dusk leaped and rolled in midair, just narrowly missing the shield's path, and the shield made its round before coming back to Leonidus's hand, but just as he got it back, he felt a boot strike him across the face and his body flew up and over backwards. He landed on his face, feeling bloody pain bolt up between his eyes. Bright lights danced in front of his vision.

Leonidus looked up to see Dusk begin to plunge a dagger down towards him, but it was knocked out of his grip by another knife spiraling through the air. Brutus's knife.

The dagger's tip sank into the side of a parked taxi alongside the road. Brutus teleported himself there to rip it out and engage in an all-out knife fight with Dusk, his eyes were full of fear as he tried to follow Dusk's fighting pattern.

Fear was something Brutus couldn't afford to have. Leonidus knew full well that it would get him killed.

Leonidus rose to his feet clutching his shield with the determination to get back into the fight. In another attempt to hit Dusk, Leonidus tossed his shield at him, watching it cut through empty air like a frisbee. Dusk noticed it coming and managed to leap and kick it so it was directed at Brutus. The shield flew and knocked Brutus's dagger out of his hand and pushed him back. Dusk seized the opportunity while Brutus was stunned to come at him with his own knife and start stabbing him in the gut. Again and again and again.

Claws raked through the inside of Leonidus's skin as he listened to flesh tear, and he could hear the blood as it flowed down the blade - sticky, oozing, metalic blood.

This is all my fault! This is all my fault!

Finally deciding to use his shotgun, Leonidus removed it from his back and fired a round at Dusk. Dusk leaped away from the blast, which just barely missed him, and ducked away between the taxi and another car to get away. Leonidus ran up to Brutus and caught his body as it fell forward.

"Brutus!" he cried. Through the exceedingly heavy rain and the tears, it was almost impossible to see his brother clearly. There was red everywhere. There was red all over his hands and it was spreading down his arms and soaking his sleeves.

"Can you use your Aura?" Leonidus asked desperately.

"I—I'm trying," Brutus replied.

"Try harder. Please."

"I promise I'm trying. Just get me back to our base," Brutus begged.

Leonidus knew he had to. Brutus was right, through and through.**

*When Dusk finally returned, Ozpin could see the delight in his companion's eyes. He had succeeded somehow in something.

"What happened to the assassins?" Ozpin asked.

"I think one of them is dead. Both of them are weak now and they'll serve as an example not to mess with us when they go back to Signal," Dusk explained.

Ozpin steadied himself with both hands on the top of his cane. "This complicates things. I made Signal so mad, she sent her own cronies after me. And she will continue to do it until I'm either dead or at her mercy."

"Neither of them sound like good places to be."

"Are they ever? I have a new strategy in mind, and for once, you get to do something that will really help me defeat Signal once and for all," Ozpin said.

"Well crap, it's about time, count me in. What is it that you want me to do?" Dusk asked eagerly.

"I want you to break into her place and challenge her to a fight," Ozpin replied.

Dusk nodded in understanding. "Sounds like fun."

"It is."

"I assume there's more to this."

"There is. Pay close attention to this my friend, because this is where it gets interesting."**

*Leonidus tried desperately to keep up as several Faunus medics wheeled Brutus on a gurney into a room where he his deep knife wounds could be treated.

"He'll be alright, won't he?" He asked.

One of the medics took a closer look at the wound in his gut where the flesh was shredded and blood was all over his stomach. There was also the wound he received from the sword in the back.

"I think so, but it'll take some time for him to recover. We need to start right away so he has a chance," the medic said.

Leonidus felt his heart crack at hearing 'so he has a chance'.

"We need you to wait out in the hall. We need all the space we can get," the medic said.

"He's my brother."

"I understand. We'll make sure to keep you up to date."

Leonidus usually felt like he was the one with all the power he needed to defend not only himself but Brutus as well. Now he felt completely vulnerable. He felt like he might as well be not wearing any clothes at all. He stepped out into the hall, listening to the door get hastily closed behind him.

"Mission was a failure, I take it?"

Leonidus looked up to see Signal leaning against the wall with her arms folded. All authority and no hint of humor or amusement in her expression.

"Ozpin had a companion with him. He was strong. He had the ability to temporarily steal my brother's Semblance, which is what led to some of my brother's injuries," Leonidus said. For a second, he undoubtedly saw a vague resemblance of sympathy flit across Signal's eyes before disappearing just as quickly.

"I'm sorry. Will he be alright?"

"I believe so. This incident gives me more motivation to slit Ozpin's throat. I want him dead just as much as you do now."

"You'll be satisfied, in due time. For now, stay close to your brother and await further orders. You'll be needed again very soon," Signal said.

"Yes, boss. Thank you. And boss?"

"Yes?"

"When Ozpin is apprehended, can I be the one to execute him myself?" Leonidus asked.

Signal's expression didn't change, but she looked as though she was trying to restrain it from changing. "Of course. You would get the job done well."

He dipped his head. "Thank you, Ms. Belladonna."

Leonidus felt a sense of newfound strength surge through him as he walked away down the hall to return to his room.


	7. A New Strategy

**AN: I'm back with another update, edited again by Elfin Maid! Work for Chapter 10 is currently underway :)**

*Ozpin did something that he typically didn't do: He twiddled his thumbs as he waited for Dusk. By the time Dusk comes back, he should be able to have seen and studied Signal's Semblance for himself so that the next time Ozpin faces her, Dusk can steal her Semblance and use it against her to defeat her. But it meant Dusk was going to have to fight Signal, and that was going to take some time.

He felt a call to Beacon was in order. When he left the school to come to the Black Hole, he had put his two most famous professors Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck in charge while he was gone.

Ozpin took out his scroll and tracked down Port's personal number and dialed for him.

"Ozpin!" Port exclaimed upon answering.

"Peter. How goes things at the school?"

"Well, the students have already managed to establish several lock-ins in the main stage room thanks to some very supported petitions, Oobleck almost set fire to the kitchen, and one of the students learned what his Semblance was only to accidentally use it on a student that made her six years younger making her boyfriend feel uncomfortable. But to answer your question, everything is fine, thank you for asking," Port said.

"Every Semblance usually comes with some sort of reversal part of the power. I'm sure the age thing can be fixed, otherwise the girl's place in the school is jeopardized," Ozpin replied.

"But what about you? Are you any closer to catching Signal?" Port asked.

Am I any closer? Excellent question, Port. You really got me on that one.

"I've been able to make some—significant strides, but I still need more time," Ozpin said.

"You'll save her. I know you will!"

"Save her?"

"Surely you don't plan on actually killing her? Ozpin, she is one of us, even if she may not realize it right now."

Ozpin felt the corners of his eyes begin to sting. "I wish she was able to hear what you just said. Unfortunately, the situation is a lot worse than I thought. It's going to take more than just saying a few heart-to-heart words to get her to change her mind."

"The students here are rooting for you, Ozpin," Port said.

Ozpin's breath caught in his throat.

"They want you back here. We all want you back here, but we also know how important this is. If you can't muster up the words to encourage yourself, then I'll encourage you," Port went on.

"Thank you, Peter. I appreciate it, I really do. I'll be back soon. Keep looking after the students. And try to figure out how to fix that girl's age," Ozpin said.

"Will do, Professor Ozpin. We will see you very soon."

Ozpin hung up, leaving himself alone on a roof. Below and all around him were the sounds of dozens of crimes, mishaps, accidents, and despicable acts happening that he wished he had the power to put a stop to all at once. He wasn't like Dusk. He didn't believe that fixing someone else's problem would accomplish nothing in the end.

 _Repeat that to yourself. I'm not like Dusk_.**

*Signal stepped into the room where Brutus was lying in his bed staring up at the green ceiling. She turned to the doctors standing by.

"Leave us," she commanded.

The doctors wordlessly nodded and left. The door closed and sealed shut behind her. She was all alone with Brutus now, allowing herself a few minutes to talk to him. She barely knew him, but somehow still cared about him as if he was a legitimate friend. She went over to Brutus's bedside. Brutus's head turned to face her. There was still a dark, dried bloodstain splashed across his cheek and a portion of flesh on his neck was scraped raw.

"Master," Brutus grunted.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm not mad at you," Signal replied.

"Forgive me. I failed you."

"No. I won't call it a failure. You tried. I was stupid to send you against one of the most powerful Huntsmen out there," Signal said.

Brutus started laughing, the sound rasping painfully from his throat. "That's not what I'm concerned about."

"What are you concerned about then?" Signal asked.

Brutus made eye contact with her again, his expression dead serious now. "You."

Signal blinked and she felt her pulse slightly quicken. "Why me?"

"Leonidus told me about the 'incident' with the Faunus Grimm creature. How it tasted your blood and became loyal to you. I also know about the friend you lost a long while ago, and I know what your plans are to bring her back. I feel like you're doing a lot of this more for yourself then for us. This is a personal matter," Brutus said.

"Onyx would make a better leader then me. I have to bring her back," Signal said.

"I—I believe you're a good leader. It's obvious that you care about all of us, but I'm concerned for your welfare. How this pursuit of yours, with Ozpin thrown into the mix now, has been eating you up."

Signal carefully tightened the barrier around herself. "You don't have to be concerned for me. I know what I'm doing."

"Master, with all due respect, I can tell that you have rage in there, and it will come out any moment, and someone you didn't want getting hurt will get hurt," Brutus said.

Signal didn't want to talk to Brutus anymore. She had to get out. She was starting to feel almost naked in front of Brutus, and scarlet shame was battering her insides.

"I'm fine! You don't have to feel concerned for me. I appreciate it, I really do. But I have to do this. Ozpin has lost all my respect for him because I learned that he lied to me. He isn't the man I thought he was, and he must die. I know that now," Signal said.

 _That was it. Get out_.

Before Brutus could respond, Signal turned and ran out. She stopped when the door slid shut again. Several Faunus soldiers standing nearby fidgeted at the sight of her. They weren't sure whether or not to stand at attention or move on, and they were confused at the sight of Signal's distress.

"What are you all doing?" Signal snarled. The soldiers immediately jerked their gazes from her and walked away.

While Signal felt that Brutus was feeling too concerned for her welfare, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she needed to sleep. She repeated the same phrase to herself that she had been repeating for almost six hours now.

 _Blake is your daughter, Blake is your daughter._

She checked on Blake in her room before moving on to her own room, willing to catch a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night. She dialed up Khol Taurus on her scroll.

"Khol, I'm lying down for a few hours. But first I have an assignment to give you," she said.

"Give it," Khol replied.

"I want you to go with some of your best warriors to hunt down Summer Rose and bring her to me. She is the key we need to begin the extinction of the humans."

"You have my word. It will be done."

After hanging up, Signal reached up to start pulling her shirt off.

"Yuck, please, spare me the sight of what's underneath all that," a new voice said behind her. Signal whirled around to see a young, hooded man with a longsword hanging from his belt. He was standing on the windowsill.

"Faunus girls. They were never really my type. Their bodies are as ugly and disgusting as the animals they posses traits of," the man said.

The warm coals in Signal's throat immediately reignited at the young man's words. She drew her daggers and bared her teeth.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

The man landed his feet in her room and slowly made his way towards the foot of her bed.

"Nothing you'd be willing to give me."

"Are you the one that wounded Brutus?" Signal asked.

"In my defense, it was in defense," the man replied, chuckling at his words.

"Whatever it is Ozpin sent you for, I am way past willingness to negotiate," Signal said. She got an idea that would give her a distinct advantage over her enemy. She pressed a button on one of her daggers, activating a new function she had built into it not long ago. With a twirl of her hand, the dagger transformed into a long chain, and she whipped the lights in the room, plunging it into darkness. With her natural near-perfect sight in the dark, she could still see her opponent just as clearly as she did in the light, but her enemy wouldn't be able to do the same.

The blue form of the young man in the dark leaped into the air with his sword already in hand, still determined to strike Signal even in the dark. Signal stepped out of the way of the oncoming blade, and lashed her chain out to have it wrapped around the man's waist. It caught on, and she yanked back, pulling him off his feet and dragging him towards her.

"No fair," Signal heard the man whine.

Too bad.

Keeping the chain around her opponent, she moved to slit the young man's throat with her other dagger, but the man parried her strike with his sword. Signal's sight in the dark was so clear she could see the mischievous grin her opponent was wearing. And it was ticking her off.

The man managed to shove Signal far back enough to pull himself out of the chain trap and roll back onto his feet behind her. Signal turned around and blocked the man's attempt to slash her in the stomach. As quickly as she could, she kicked off her high-heels so that they wouldn't cause her to stumble, and they both miraculously struck the man in the face.

The man yelped and spat something that was -hopefully- blood.

"High-heels in the face? That's a new one," he said, almost cheerfully.

The two of them continued swinging away at each other, and continued parrying each other's strikes as they came at different parts of their bodies. Signal was amazed at how well her opponent was able to keep up with her direction even though the dark was supposed to be her advantage, but it was proving to not be much of an obstacle for the man. If she could somehow back the man into something to make him trip, that could help. She somersaulted backwards, kicking her feet up her opponent's face. She landed and threw her dagger in the air, watching as it struck the corner of her bed and spun in the young man's direction. The man leaped and rolled in the air while the dagger spiraled underneath him before it struck the dresser and came straight back into Signal's waiting hand. She gasped when she saw the opponent's sword flying straight for her with the tip of the blade poised to sink right into her chest.

She shut her eyes and brought some of Khol's own words to heart in this moment. From time to time, Khol Taurus taught her new ways to make use of her Aura and this was one of those times to use it. For a second, everything seemed to slow down and she was able to see the full setup of the situation. Her Aura was analyzing it for her. She didn't have enough time to leap away, but she could use a small burst of her Aura to speed up her movement, allowing herself to bat the sword away with her dagger in a diagonal counterattack strike. In an instant, time reverted back to normal and she saw the opponent's sword flying away and she could feel violent vibrations coursing through the hilt of her dagger and the tops of her arms. A bright light like a camera flash lit up the room and died out just as quickly as it had come. The ghost of a smile formed on Signal's lips.

The tip of the man's blade sank into the wall, but it started to tremor, until something happened that Signal didn't see coming. An invisible force wrenched the sword out of the wall and it flew past Signal's face, and the hilt struck her in the nose. Bone exploded and tissue tore as Signal was tossed like a rag doll onto the floor. The pain that spread through her face like wildfire made her skin feel like it was melting off of her. Through blurry vision she could see the man's sword hovering right above her without anyone holding it.

"Telekinesis?" Signal gasped.

"Just for my sword," the young man replied, walking up to take it in his hand.

"Surely the leader of the Lioness's Pride was more powerful than this. I'm disappointed."

Signal wanted to kill him. She wanted to tear him apart, but the pain was too much. She couldn't move.

She could feel liquid dripping down her face.

 _My blood_.

"Come on now. You can do better than this. Get up," the man said.

Signal wanted to. She wanted to so much, but everything hurt. Tears of pain streamed down her face and soaked her shirt.

A bolt of pain exploded in her side as her opponent kicked her there.

"Get up," the man said.

Flashbacks to when Gray beat her after she lost to him in a fight sliced across her mind and fresh anger billowed, surging up inside her chest, pushing her onwards.

"Never again will a human beat me like this," Signal snarled. Despite all that she felt, she rose to her feet and placed her hand on her nose. She shut her eyes again and allowed her Aura to flow back through her so that her nose could be snapped back into the right position. Something inside her felt like it almost tore as she called upon more of her Aura to numb the pain when the nose straightened itself again. The young man just watched her with a wide smile and gleeful eyes looking on.

That was enough of that. Signal summoned her Semblance. Two clones appeared on each side of her and charged at the opponent. The man seemed hardly phased, in fact, he looked worriedly satisfied.

Both of Signal's clones slashed at the boy, one of the clones managing to strike him in the leg. A flash of light indicating his Aura was hit went off and the boy grunted as he leaped back before charging after Signal again.

Signal flipped backwards and snatched her chain up in the process and thrust one end at the opponent. It lashed across the boy's face and with a cry, his whole body went flying until it hit the wall next to the window he had come in from.

"Dirty Faunus," he grunted.

"Surrender!" Signal shouted. Her chain reverted back into a dagger and she threw it at the opponent, intending for it to sink into his neck. The opponent saw it coming however, and he ducked his head in time as it hit the wall directly above him and stayed there. The boy took the dagger and half-heartedly threw it back at Signal. It was as if he was purposely not putting every muscle of his into that throw. It hit the floor, spun a little bit of a distance, and stopped to rest just short of clipping Signal's feet.

Just as Signal thought to herself that that was the worst throw ever, of all time, the boy slipped out the window and disappeared. She scooped up her dagger and ran to catch up with him, but by the time she got to the window, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Come back here, you coward!" Signal screamed.

No answer.

There was nothing but the dark gloom of the night deep in the Black Hole.**

*It was bad enough to walk through the Black Hole, it was even worse to be underground directly beneath the city. Qrow had already had to cut down several Grimm parasites that were in his and his team's way. It didn't help that Krystal shrieked at each one as they came into view.

"Shh shh shh, it's alright," Summer said to Krystal.

"Will you stop being her mother? You already have a second kid coming your way," Qrow growled.

"Well who else is supposed to be her mother? Where's her real one?" Summer asked.

"She doesn't like you. She's jealous you got Taiyang first," Qrow said.

"Qrow! You promised not to tell!" Krystal shouted.

"I'm not exactly one to keep promises," Qrow admitted with a dismissive shrug. He took a swig of beer at the same time that he slew another parasite.

Finally, they made it to a large opening where a pool filled with liquid red Dust was.

 _This—this must be what Raven wanted us to find_.

"Here we are. This is it," Qrow said. He turned to face Summer. "I believe this is where you come in." He paused. "I do hope you know how to swim."


	8. From Dust Till Dawn

There were four things in life that Roman Torchwick did well: lie, steal, cheat, and survive. All of these things were instrumental when gambling with others. Using Dust sown into his gloves, he kept one hand stroking his chin so that the cards of the other players were transparent to him. Dust with the power of X-ray vision, courtesy of his partner-in-crime, Neopolitan. A short young woman just a few years shy of Roman's age, Neo lived up to her name simply because of her colors: pink, brown, and white. Half of her hair was pink while the other half was brown, and one eye was brown while the other was pink. In her hand she held a pink and white parasol.

One of the players, a large, burly man with a violet-tinted monocle began to quickly lose patience. "You're a cheating scoundrel. This man is a thief and a liar," he said. The other two players nervously continued focusing on their cards, trying to figure out how to gain the upper hand.

Roman feigned offense, eyes wide. "I'm the liar? Oh why, how could you say such a horrible thing? What proof do you have?"

"I just have a damn good hunch," Monocle snapped.

Roman chuckled. "Well, every sore loser has a damn good hunch that the winner is cheating."

Monocle stood up from the table with his fists at his sides. "Was that a confession I heard?"

Neo moved to defend Roman, but he put his hand in front of her to stop her. "Whoa, darling, there's no need for things to get physical." Roman folded his arms. "Would you like to know what a real liar is? A cheating scoundrel? A thief and a liar?"

"I don't give a crap, me and my boys know perfectly well that it's simply impossible for anyone to have three Queens at the same time," Monocle replied.

"My father Collus lied his way into the weapons business. He—of all people—was entrusted with collecting Dust and crystals from the soil and using them to create weapons that had the potential to kill thousands. One day he even forced me to survive on my own in Forever Falls for eight weeks." Roman grabbed Monocle by the throat. "Eight weeks, man. And I make one harmless insult to my father when he came to pick me up, and I'm put on patrol at his main facility."

"What's your point?" Monocle growled.

Roman grinned. "My point is, I'm not the one who's the scoundrel. I'm the one that eliminates the scoundrels. Shortly after my father was put in prison for his dastardly deeds, I went back to finish him off and it was by far the best thing I had ever done for myself. I did the world a favor."

"You're a terrible man," Monocle groaned.

"You haven't seen or heard anything yet," Roman said. Before he could do anything else however, someone began clapping. He turned to see a tall Faunus walking towards him with several other Faunus soldiers behind him, all bearing the mark of the Lioness's Pride.

"Roman Torchwick. I've heard a lot about you."

"I'm kind of in the middle of terrorizing someone, can you come back later?" Roman asked.

Monocle's two friends leaped to their feet and ran away. Khol Taurus took up a pistol from his belt and fired a shot at Monocle. The bullet cleaved the side of his head and he fell lifeless out of Roman's grip.

"Let's talk business. One of my boys told me that you helped him broadcast the footage of Jenta's assassination. Now you can help me with something else."

Roman looked at Neo, who smiled and nodded in approval to hear Khol out.

Roman sighed. "This better be good." **

*Ozpin was jolted awake as someone's hand fell on his shoulder. He took up his cane and held it at the newcomer's neck.

"Relax, it's just me," Dusk said, careful to hold himself still.

Ozpin relaxed, the cane falling back to his side. "That was faster than I expected."

"I got what we needed. I know what Signal's Semblance is now and how it works. I can steal it the next time we confront her in order to take her down. Then she's all yours," Dusk said. He sat down on the edge of the roof of the building they were on.

"Did you end up hurting her?" Ozpin asked.

Dusk shrugged. "Any way I did was taken care of when she fixed it herself. She is powerful, and can't be underestimated." He grimaced. "I certainly learnt that for sure."

Ozpin stood up. "It's soon time to face her again then, and I hope it will be the last time."

"So what is it exactly that you're trying to do? Do you want her dead, or do you want her alive?"

"Alive, alive. It has to be alive!" Ozpin said.

"What if you don't pull it off? What if you've already caused enough damage that can't be undone? Then what?" Dusk asked.

"I don't know, but I'm not going to kill her."

"I can see why you're trying so badly to hope that things will be alright in the end, but that's not usually how this crap goes down. Believe me, I've been there."

"What do you know about loss?" Ozpin asked.

The shadow of a fire flared in Dusk's eyes. "Try an entire team that's slaughtered in front of you."

Ozpin stopped and raised an eyebrow. "You had your own team?"

"Not just some team I assembled myself. It was entrusted to me by my father, Vesper. He believed I was ready to handle the responsibility of leading a team, but I failed him. Another team from Signal Academy came down on us, and all of my teammates were killed in front of me. I barely escaped with my life, and my father would not trust me with anything ever again."

Ozpin allowed this new information to sink in. He began to understand Dusk's overall demeanor. There was a heavy sadness in him that was simply impenetrable and he usually masked it with anger. Vengeance was on his mind, but he clearly didn't know where to start. He was directionless.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about your team. I hope your father will one day trust you again," Ozpin said.

Dusk shook his head with a sad smile. "I appreciate your sympathy, but it doesn't matter. My father is gone. I will never see him again."**

*Summer Rose stepped into the pool and the liquid Dust rose up, covering most of her naked body so that only her shoulders and the top of her chest could be seen.

At first, nothing happened. Then a bright white light swallowed up her vision and she felt her head jerk up and she let loose a howling scream that sounded like an Ursa's roar.

First there was only white, then she could see everything above ground. The whole city and all the people traveling to their destinations. She could see the energy in everybody drifting around within them like billions of dust particles. She could see their Aura, some glowing in an intense white light and some hovering above their hearts looking like tainted water. What was most noticeable about the city amidst the tall buildings, flashing lights, and masses of people however, was the growing feeling of fear. It plagued the hearts of most of the population. Some people were even stealing glances both ways with nervous eyes.

 _Don't be afraid_ , Summer thought. _You know what happens when you fear_.

The creator of this fear came from the Lioness's Pride, the group that was determined to scare the living daylights out of everyone in this city, this kingdom, and eventually all kingdoms.

Summer couldn't see Qrow and Taiyang and Krystal, but to them, they saw her eyes blast nothing but white as she felt the Dust she was bathing in connect with her bloodstream.

"I want to be strong," she heard herself say.

Flashes of colors, red, white, black, and yellow, fled across her vision, and she felt her whole body jolt as newfound power bolted up her chest.

"I want to be feared," Summer heard herself say.

 _The Dust accepts you. You are worthy_.

"I want—to be powerful," Summer said, and one more jolt through her body completed the task. She finally opened her eyes. Red Dust was drifting down all around her to rest in the pool again. Qrow and Taiyang stared at her with their jaws dropped.

"That—was—awesome!" Krystal yelled, pumping her fist in the air.

Taiyang ran to be by Summer's side. "How do you feel?"

Summer took Taiyang's hand. "We need to hurry. We must stop Signal before she does anything else to cause more fear, otherwise this city will be ambushed by Grimm."

"I'm sure Ozpin is doing what he can, he said—."

"I know what he said, but we haven't heard from him and time is running short," Summer said.

Taiyang helped lift Summer out of the pool and gasped. "Honey, the baby—."

"The baby is fine. I can still feel it in me. The power passed on to me in that pool comes with an illusion to hide my pregnancy. I am powerful and stable enough now to fight as if I'm not carrying a child," Summer explained.

Taiyang whistled. "Baby, I'm more attracted to you now."

"Shut up and give me my clothes," she snapped.

Once Summer was dressed and ready to go back up to the surface, she led her team. "Once we get back up there, we'll contact Ozpin and ask him about his progress, but we need to start heading for Signal's location with or without him."

"Are you sure that you're strong enough to do this?" Taiyang asked.

"I come from a long line of silver-eyed warriors with power that you can only dream of having. Sound satisfying enough for you?" Summer asked.

"I'm gonna need more than that," Taiyang joked.

"You should listen to your boyfriend, Ms. Rose. Sometimes he knows what he's talking about," a voice said. Summer and Taiyang had been so engaged in their banter, that they failed to see that Roman Torchwick and his partner Neo were waiting for them at the entrance of the tunnels. Behind them was a group of Faunus soldiers from the Lioness's Pride armed to the teeth. Standing with them was Signal's lieutenant, Khol Taurus.

Qrow stepped forward with his arms folded as he surveyed Khol's forces.

"The Lioness's Pride is determined to destroy all humankind, so they hire humans to help them," he said.

"They made me an offer that I," Roman paused to fake a cough, "can't refuse."

"We're here for Summer Rose. The boss wants what she has. The power that can help us complete our agenda," Khol explained.

Taiyang stepped in front of Summer with his sword already out. "If you want her, come and claim her."

"I hope he dies," Krystal whispered to Qrow. Qrow's gaze snapped to the girl, and he glared at her.

"Surrender now, or we will have to take you by force, and not all of you might get taken alive," Khol said.

Qrow removed his sword from his back and the gears in the hilt spun faster and the sword reformed into a long scythe. He spun the scythe and latched it around the heads of one of the Faunus soldiers. With a jerk, the soldier's unattached head exploded into a cloud of Dust before it could even hit the ground.

For what seemed like a long moment, nobody spoke. Khol seemed thoroughly flabbergasted with what had happened to one of his soldiers.

"Um, force it is then," he finally said weakly.

"Stay with me," Qrow said to Krystal.

"I don't need to," Krystal replied. Much to Qrow's surprise, Krystal broke away from the group and started walking towards the Faunus soldiers. She reached into her pocket and produced a long metal pipe, which was too big to even fit in her pocket in the first place. It seemed to materialize as she was pulling it out.

Khol recognized Krystal as a Faunus and removed his own katana to face her.

"Traitor!" he screamed. He leaped after Krystal to fight. His katana easily knocked Krystal's pipe away from him.

"Attack!" He ordered his men behind him.

All around Khol and Krystal, swords clashed and bullets lit up the tunnel. Bodies of Faunus soldiers fell and dissipated into Dust. Krystal's pipe lit up in a pale scarlet light and as she parried Khol's attacks from his sword, her weapon absorbed every impact. Once Khol struck Krystal's pipe a satisfying number of times, Krystal seized the opportunity to swing her pipe as hard as she could, blowing Khol back, who knocked a couple soldiers down in his way as he flew.

Feeling proud of herself, Krystal licked her pipe.

"I was impressed until the 'licking' part," Qrow shouted from where he was at, cutting down Faunus soldiers as they advanced at him.

"Sorry. Bad habit," Krystal said.

Qrow had just enough time to raise an eyebrow in response before blocking a sword swing that was going for his torso.

"Krystal, help!" Summer shouted behind Krystal. Krystal whirled around to see Summer off her feet covering a wound in her leg. She ran over to Summer's side.

"Are you okay?" Krystal asked.

"Yes. I'm perfect," Summer said with a devilish smile. Krystal then realized that that wasn't Summer's lips. Summer's silver eyes transitioned into one brown and one pink, and her hair changed so that half of it was pink and half of it was brown, following the same pattern as the eyes. Her clothes changed too into a white and pink Huntress uniform. The next thing Krystal saw was an umbrella in her face, forcing her backwards. Neo stood up, umbrella in hand.

"Really? That's all you've got—" she started, but was cut off as she felt her nose, her torso, and her left leg experience a blow from the bottom hook of Neo's umbrella, all within a split second.

Krystal managed to get her pipe back up to deflect Neo's next set of moves, blocking her umbrella as it came for her. Neo leaped, kicked, and spun in the air, trying to throw Krystal off and beat her again once she was open.

You're a Faunus. You can follow the girl's pattern.

The problem was that Neo was unpredictable. One pattern of combat moves always seemed to transition into an entirely different one and it grew harder to anticipate what she would do next the longer Krystal fought her, which was the exact opposite of what Krystal would expect.

The pipe grew heavier in Krystal's hand as the number of impacts it received grew. She had to swing it before it became too heavy for her to keep holding. It was one of the defects of her weapon that she failed to look into while she was creating it, and she didn't have the resources she needed to fix it either anyway.

A rush of adrenaline surged through Krystal as she lifted her pipe over her head and struck it down on the ground, sending an enormous gust of wind out that blew Neo back, but not hard enough to keep her from landing on her feet. Neo quickly shook her head to stop feeling stunned, and ran at Krystal again with a big smile, using her open umbrella as a shield.

Krystal waited for just a second before scooping up her pipe, crouching down, and striking Neo in the leg. Electricity popped across Neo's body and she fell on her back with a gasp. On her way to kneel by her side, Krystal smashed the side of her pipe against the head of an oncoming soldier.

Krystal took hold of Neo's chin so that Neo's eyes were staring straight into hers.

It was time to for Krystal to activate her Semblance.

"Don't talk. Listen to me or you will die. Fight the Faunus soldiers. Don't stop until they're all dead or they retreat," Krystal commanded.

The colors in Neo's eyes drained until there was nothing left but solid black. Krystal allowed Neo to stand up.

"Go," Krystal ordered.

Neo grinned and she turned to face the Faunus soldiers she had sided with not too long ago. She lunged at them, scattering the bodies of Faunus in her wake.

"Neo! What are you doing?" Roman demanded.

"Doing what the nice lady says," Neo sweetly, but her word's were Krystal's.**

*Qrow gaped mindlessly, stunned by what Krystal was able to do, watching as Khol broke away from fighting him with an enraged snarl. He pulled out a pistol from a holster in his back and fired a round at Neo. The bullet caught in her leg and she went tumbling onto her face.

"You have to do something, Summer. Now. Otherwise we all go down in this chaos," Qrow insisted.

Summer gazed down at her hands, unsure of what to do. "I—I've never used those special powers. I don't even know how to start."

"Your Aura can help guide you. Use it," Qrow said.

Qrow watched Summer shut her eyes as she tried to concentrate.

"Keep trying, I'll defend you," Qrow said. He stepped in front of Summer and his scythe-turned-sword turned into a blur as he deflected all the bullets that came his way, batting some of them right back at the ones that used them.

"Qrow…" Summer said behind him. Qrow turned around and gasped at what he saw.

The color of Summer's skin was grey, and blood was pouring from her terrified eyes, streaming down her cheeks like teardrops. A bright light was forming around her.

"Qrow, help me…"

"Summer…" Qrow choked out.

"I'm scared."

Something exploded, and the world went white.

 **AN: Please let me know if you caught my little nod to _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_. It was so much fun to add in there because I got the idea while I was writing the scene.**


	9. Reforming the Ashes

*When Qrow came to, his head was pounding quite a bit harder than it did when he got himself drunk.

Which is all the time, so, this is just that plus this new pain.

He sat up and looked around. Bodies were everywhere, mostly Faunus soldiers. He saw Taiyang walking amongst them looking for something or someone.

Summer.

"Taiyang, where's Summer?" Qrow rasped.

Taiyang looked at him with tears in his eyes. "They took her. They took her, she's—she's gone."

Qrow took up his sword and leaped to his feet.

"Summer, the Faunus leader, and those two humans that were helping him are missing," Taiyang said.

"We'll find them," Qrow said, then he called out, "Krystal!"

Krystal was lying on her side with her eyes closed. A fresh trickle of blood was oozing from the skin above her eyebrow and dribbling off her chin.

Qrow ran to her side and rolled her onto her back.

"Krystal," he said. Normally he wasn't one for shedding tears. Qrow couldn't remember the last time he had cried. He certainly didn't anticipate crying now, but he couldn't help it. Tears fell from his eyes as he thought about the fact that Summer Rose was in danger, and now Krystal, a young Faunus girl he barely knew, was bleeding at his knees.

"I'm stronger than this. How could this happen under my watch?" Qrow asked aloud. He was talking more to himself than he was to Taiyang.

"We have to go after them before it's too late. I can't let Signal get her hands on Summer," Taiyang said.

Qrow blinked the rest of his tears out. He didn't shed very many. "You're right. You can't. See what you can do for Krystal. I'll call Ozpin." He straightened, pulling out his scroll - which, somehow, had remained intact through it all.

Qrow got up and whipped out his scroll, which had somehow survived the catastrophe.**

*Ozpin blinked when he saw Qrow's caller ID on his scroll.

"Who's that?" Dusk asked.

"A friend. Give me a moment," Ozpin said, pressing the 'answer' button. "Yes?"

"Ozpin, we've got a serious problem."

"Your definition of 'serious problem' doesn't always align with mine."

"Summer was taken by some of Signal's men. They probably have her at Signal's location by now."

Ozpin's eyes widened as he swallowed a choked exclamation. Summer has been taken?

"Okay this time our own definitions align perfectly."

"Me and Taiyang will get there to help as soon as we can, but you need to go there—now. You know what Signal could do to her."

Signal's words to Ozpin during their last meeting were still fresh in Ozpin's mind.

I will kill Qrow personally, and I will use Summer's power to bring Onyx back.

"If Signal tries to use Summer's power by force, it could…"

"Kill the baby," Qrow finished, his words brutally honest.

"Damn it, Qrow! I wasn't planning on finishing the statement. I figured the place I stopped at brought the point across enough."

"My apologies. Taiyang and I will join you shortly, but first we have to help a friend."

Ozpin was too concerned about the fate of Summer's child to ask what friend Qrow was talking about. He agreed to go and hung up. He turned to Dusk.

"There's been an alteration made to the confrontation. We have to save a powerful lady and her baby when we confront Signal," he said.

"Lead the way," Dusk replied, gesturing to the ladder that would take them down off the roof.**

*Kohl halted his truck so that Roman Torchwick and his companion Neo could get off at the train station where they will take a train that will get them far away from the city.

"What about my friend?" he demanded. "She. Can't. Speak. Something happened when that dirty mutt hypnotized her and you traumatized her by shooting her in the leg."

It was the first time Khol had ever seen Roman's eyes full of grief. Somehow, he liked it. So, there is someone in his life that he cares about.

"There's nothing I can - or will - do about that," Khol said.

Roman stepped up to tackle Khol off his seat, but Khol was ready with his katana to stop him. The tip of the blade barely touched Roman's neck when he held it out as a warning.

"I gave you a pretty handsome sum considering the fact that you were of very little help, and you get to keep your life. Be grateful for that," Khol sneered.

Roman stared down at the katana, his teeth bared so Khol could see them. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Perhaps you would like me to send an anonymous report to the authorities that you were the one that murdered your father in prison. You'll never be able to rest easy again, and her safety will be compromised," Khol threatened.

With a growl, Roman stepped back, allowing Khol to drive away. Khol watched Roman in his rearview mirror before his figure vanished for good. He knew that he could never tell Signal that he had enlisted the help of humans to get a job done. Despite his feelings towards humans, there was something about them that still made them useful.

 _Sometimes_.

After hearing about what Roman did for Leonidus, he sounded like a trustworthy person to hire, but he knew that Signal would never approve of it.

Signal will never survive either. She isn't powerful enough to ensure her own safety. It won't be long now.**

*Signal was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her eyes shut and her new katana laid out in front of her. Her hands were resting on her knees as she concentrated. She focused deeply on each breath, feeling her chest rise and fall every time as she tried to center her thoughts. Khol had contacted her and informed her that they had Summer and were on their way. She had to prepare herself before their arrival. Not only would she be taking control of a silver-eyed warrior's power, she would also be taking that power from someone that she once had an emotional connection with. Someone who was as close to a mother as she had ever had.

 _But I won't kill Summer. She'll understand - she'll have to_.

Though she would sooner die than admit it, the words she spoke to herself were pleading.

The doors into the school flew open behind her and her heart rate skyrocketed. She could hear Summer's legs being dragged across the floor as Khol and a few of his men brought her to their master.

Signal finally brought herself to look at Summer and almost gasped at what she saw. Summer's skin was completely bone-white and there were bloodstains on her cheeks and on her clothes.

"What did you do to her?" Signal demanded, her voice rising dangerously. Summer's body flinched at her voice.

"We did nothing," Khol hastened to explain. "She attempted to use her powers on us, but something went wrong and she lost control. Most of my men died in the impact."

Signal walked up to Summer and knelt down so that her eyes were level with Summer's.

"Its been a long time," Signal said.

Summer didn't reply. The grief in her eyes was beginning to disgust Signal, and she welcomed the change of emotion.

"Once I'm done with what I need to do with you, I will let you go," Signal said, quietly enough that Khol couldn't hear her.

Summer slowly lifted her eyes, meeting Signal's gaze with broken shards of silver. "You know you don't want to do this. I'm your friend."

Signal stood back up with her fists at her sides. "Do not try to make me feel sympathy. This is too important for you to sidetrack. You have to understand."

Khol's boot connected with Summer's back, the action brutally abrupt. "I found her and her team down in the underground tunnels. Reports say that there's a pool there. A pool filled with red liquid Dust."

Signal's eyes widened a bit to hear this news. She had read about the pool—and where it was. But she didn't think that even she was able enough to try it. But maybe, just maybe, it was worth a try.

 _I'll go there later, and see what I might be able to do for myself there_.

"Keep her on her knees," Signal ordered. Khol and the Faunus soldier on the other side of Summer tightened their grip on her so that she couldn't move her arms. Signal reached into her pocket and pulled out a white glove with a glowing scarlet symbol on the back representing an eye.

"I know you won't do it yourself. So I will take your power from you to do it myself. I spent some time over the last year learning how this can be accomplished. Someone helped me," Signal said.

She brought her gloved hand close to Summer's face.

There was a moment of silence stretched impossibly tight, and then something snapped.

"I'm pregnant!" Summer blurted out.**

*Brutus, who had been standing nearby with Leonidus, gasped when he heard the prisoner.

"I'm pregnant!"

There was desperation in the prisoner's voice, and it sent chills down his spine - she was no longer fearful for her own life, but for her unborn child's. He tensed violently and held his breath as he waited for Signal's response. He tried to find a change in his boss's expression. There had to be hint of remorse or - or - something!

But there was nothing, save for her icy mask.

"Then you have my apologies in advance," Signal said freezingly.

Brutus shook his head in horror. This wasn't right. This was going too far.

"I have to stop her," he said.

"What?" Leonidus asked, alarmed.

"This isn't right. Signal will kill the baby. That power is attached to her life force. It can kill either her child or—both of them."

"Brutus, remember what that human did to you earlier. You almost died."

"But I didn't, and I'm beginning to see now what's going on. The humans are just doing what we've been doing. Defending themselves to survive. They may have discriminated and bullied us, but they've never plotted to kill our entire race," Brutus pointed out.

"You've seen the way the humans have treated us. Remember the mines, my brother, when Jasper finally urged us to rise up in rebellion against those slavers?"

Brutus shook his head again. "But a child? It doesn't seem worth it."

Leonidus clasped Brutus's shoulder and turned his brother around so that he was looking at him right in the eye.

"Watch your words, or you will lose all of them. Signal will not tolerate betrayal."

"But I haven't betrayed her." And then - just to himself - he said two more words, softly, so very very softly that he was almost unsure he'd thought them at all.

Not yet.

The Grimm parasite burst from Signal's glove.**

*Signal allowed the parasite, a spider-like Grimm to launch off her hand and attach itself to Summer's face, leaving behind a trail of black, stringy flesh to stay connected to Signal's hand so that the power could be transferred successfully.

I'm almost done, Onyx, she thought behind a haze of unplaced emotions. Everything is going to be okay.

The doors behind Summer flew open as Ozpin and his companion stepped in, already armed.

Time slowed.

"No," she screamed, and the sound was foreign in her own ears.

Dusk leapt forward, severing the connection between Summer and Signal with his sword, Signal has succeeded in taking but small dropof Summer's power. It was barely enough to make her any stronger than she already was, and it felt as if it was crawling through her veins like the parasite she had used.

"You don't have to do this," Ozpin said, stepping forward with his cane.

She reached for words, for acid-coated insults and accusations, and almost came up short.

"You lost your ability to negotiate," Signal sneered, and she launched herself at Ozpin, katana in hand.**

*Qrow watched Krystal's eyes flutter open. The color was returning to her skin and she began moving.

"Lie still. You were concussed," Qrow said, placing a hand on her chest to force her back down.

"What happened?" Krystal moaned.

"You lost consciousness during a fight. You got a nasty cut but most of that's taken care of already. You're one tough girl," Qrow said.

Krystal finally started to relax and stared up at the early morning sky. Finally the sun was out again. For how long Qrow didn't know. Something told him that this wasn't a place where the sun shined often.

"Qrow, I'm scared," Krystal whispered.

"Don't be. No, seriously - don't be. Bad things happen when you're scared. I've got ya, okay?"

"Was I good? In the fight?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you were pretty good. I had no idea you had that weapon."

Krystal felt for her pipe weapon sitting next to her.

"Her name is Heavy Metal. I made her from whatever materials I had available to me."

"Well, maybe some day soon you'll be able to make some pretty impressive modifications to it. I know a place where you can do just that," Qrow said.

Qrow then realized what he was saying. Was he actually about to offer Krystal a place in Signal Academy?

"Qrow, I'm going to get Summer back," Taiyang said behind him.

"Go. I'll stay with Krystal."

"Summer's gone?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah, but Taiyang will go get her back."

"I hope he doesn't die."

"Me too, kid."**

*"The only reason why we're fighting is because you choose to," Ozpin said as he parried Signal's swings. He couldn't deny the fact that Signal was skilled in a fight - he had never doubted that - but now he was actually afraid of his own life being taken from him by her.

"What choice do I have?" Signal spat. Her words sounded hollow, even to his ears, and he knew she was afraid.

In an effort to weaken her, Ozpin attacked her with his cane using a 'rapid-fire' move by constantly bashing her all over her body with the bottom end of the cane, using an inhuman level of speed he had practiced for himself for a long time now.

Once he was done doing a number on Signal, he bashed her one last time to knock her off her feet. When Signal leaped over backwards, a clone of her was kneeling where she used to be, and it attacked Ozpin with Signal's twin daggers. Ozpin dodged his head every which way he needed to go to avoid them as they attempted to stab him.

He finally managed to grab one of the clone's wrists and twist it until the clone dropped the dagger, which was the broken one. Before the clone could react, Ozpin dropped his cane to bash the clone in the head with his own fist. The clone fell to the floor unconscious and vanished in a flash of light.

As Ozpin reached down to retrieve his cane, a burst of pain exploded through his back. He could feel Signal, either her real self or a clone, clinging onto his back while driving a knife into him. Ozpin reached behind him to pull Signal off but she stayed there. A boot connected with his face and he staggered back in pain. He saw another Signal run at him with a broken dagger to stab him right above the eye. With one blade over his eye and another in his back, Ozpin began to feel his Aura slipping away.

 _Hold on. Just hold on a little longer._

His hands were still free. He just had to go for his cane.

But everything hurt, his very bones hurt, and he was tired.

 _Where's Dusk? This wasn't part of the plan_.

"Just—die," the Signal with a dagger over Ozpin's eye grunted. There was a strange undertone to her voice, though, and it shook him awake.

 _The hard way it is_.

Ozpin reached up with both hands and gripped Signal's wrist, pushing her back so that she would lose her grip on the dagger over his eye, then shoved himself up and backwards to land on his back, taking the Signal on top of him with him.

The knife in his back drove up deeper, and he could feel it scrape through his flesh. The Signal underneath him let out a painful, broken gasp. The hilt of the dagger had slammed against her neck, snapping a vocal cord in the process. Ozpin felt himself hit the floor as the clone vanished.

"You're crazy!" the other Signal snarled, and he assumed she was the real one.

"I know," Ozpin rasped. The pain in his back was almost unbearable now, and he felt something wet and sticky clinging to his shirt. The air around him smelt of something metallic. "Signal," he said weakly. "Your knife is just about a few inches from my brain. You know you don't want to do this."

Signal jerked another dagger from her belt and plunged it into the skin over Ozpin's other eye.

"Okay. Maybe you do," Ozpin said. His vision was flashing through all the colors of the rainbow, sending pain shooting off into every nerve receptor he could imagine.

Before Signal could do anything more however, a flying shield struck her in the side of the head and tossed her body off of Ozpin's.

Taiyang appeared. "Ozpin!"

"Hello Taiyang, it's good to see you," Ozpin said pleasantly, ignoring the two knives over his eyes and the blade in his back.

"Ozpin, look at you! You're a mess," Taiyang said, reaching his hand out.

"I'm certainly in a lot of pain," Ozpin replied, taking the hand and getting back onto his feet. Despite the slicing scissors in his head, Ozpin focused on what little Aura he had left, and a burst of white energy blew the daggers out of him. He could feel the torn skin begin to close the wounds up.

"I think I did a pretty good job saving you," Taiyang said.

"No kidding, she was going to—"

Something struck Taiyang in the head, knocking him down. It was his own shield thrown back at him by Signal. Ozpin scooped up his cane and prepared himself as Signal lashed out at him again with her katana. The two continued fighting their way across the room. Ozpin's Aura still needed time to recharge, so this time, he was completely vulnerable.

"Taiyang! Get Summer out of here!" Ozpin cried.

That caught Signal's attention. "No!"

She whirled around to face Taiyang carrying Summer out. Dozens upon dozens of Signal's own clones tore themselves away from their desperate source and ran after Taiyang to stop him.

"Ozpin!" Taiyang cried in desperation.

"Dusk, I need your help!" Ozpin yelled. He swung at Signal with his cane, but Signal saw it coming and parried the blow.

Dusk was in an intense fight between Leonidus and Brutus. Khol Taurus was running back to Signal's side.

"Done," Dusk said. He threw his sword so that it spun in the air and, using the telekinetic ability he had with it, cut down all the clones within seconds. Taiyang made it the rest of the way out with Summer, cutting down any Faunus soldiers that stood in his way to stop him.

With a frantic roar, Signal kicked Ozpin back and ran out the door with Khol.

She was so desperate to catch Summer that she had forgotten about Ozpin.

"We have to go, now," Ozpin said to Dusk.

Leonidus attempted to stop them with his shotgun as they ran out, but Ozpin and Dusk easily batted the bullets away.

 _This is it._

There's no turning back from this now.


	10. Such Arrogance

**AN: Sorry this is so late! I am now finished with the writing process for the whole volume, so you'll get the last chapters a lot quicker.**

While Ozpin was fighting Signal inside the abandoned school, Leonidus and Brutus were engaged in combat against Ozpin's mysterious companion, Dusk. Despite the tension of the fight, it was hard for Leonidus to concentrate, which was usually a strength of his. He felt almost—dazed.

Slowly but surely, his master was beginning to seem crazy, and now his brother was talking about possibly abandoning his job as one of Signal's assassins, leaving Leonidus to wonder where he belonged in all of this.

As Dusk swung his sword at Leonidus's legs, Leonidus leaped up and landed his feet on the table. He drew a plasma pistol from his belt and fired several rounds at Dusk, who spun his sword in a dizzying blur to deflect the bullets. Then Dusk swung his sword again, this time aiming for one of the legs of the table. The leg split in half, dumping Leonidus off the table as it collapsed on one angle. Leonidus fumbled for his shield and opened it up, feeling the back of his head hit the table as Dusk's sword collided with the shield.

With every bit of strength he could call forth, Leonidus pushed his way up onto his feet and shoved Dusk back with a strangled cry. He took up his knife and tossed it up in the air above Dusk so that Brutus could teleport to the spot in midair and go down on Dusk. Brutus appeared in midair and attempted to hack Dusk's head with his black sword, but with a sleight of hand, Dusk grabbed Brutus's leg and pulled his whole body away from him, using physical strength that Leonidus couldn't see on Dusk.

Who is this guy?

Dusk kicked Brutus hard enough in the side to make his body roll. Khol Taurus finally came at Dusk with his own knife and an animalistic cry. Dusk's blade retreated into its own hilt and Dusk put the hilt away to confront Khol in close combat. Khol attempted several jabs at Dusk, one at the head, one at the torso, and another at the head again, which Dusk deflected by using both his hands to push Khol's dagger hand aside. Khol flipped the dagger, caught it and aimed for Dusk's head again. Dusk used both his hands to grab Khol's wrist and drive the dagger-hand down while Khol gripped Dusk's shoulder with his free hand to shove. Leonidus watched and couldn't help but finally feel a sense of admiration for his own foe. He was quick, obviously more skilled in ways that he wasn't, and he rarely seemed exhausted. Something was pushing him to keep going, Leonidus just wondered what that had to be.

When Khol swung in a wide arc to slice Dusk's head, Dusk ducked, but just barely enough for him to miss his hair. Another swing immediately after was Khol's free hand to strike him with his fist, which missed too, giving Dusk the opportunity to smash his own fist into Khol's face. Khol stumbled backwards and Dusk went after him, allowing Leonidus to dive for his knife while the enemy was distracted. He flipped it over so that he was holding it by the blade and tossed it at Dusk to get him in the back. Dusk saw it coming out of the corner of his eye however, and his sword hilt slapped into his hand and the blade popped up in time to deflect it.

Brutus appeared where the dagger fell, this time his black sword being twice the size that it was and swung it overhead. Dusk leaped aside to avoid it and the blade smashed into the floor, tossing up debris in the process.

"No!" Leonidus heard Signal scream.

Everyone's attention turned to Signal, who was watching a Huntsman attempt to save Summer.

"Dusk, I need your help!" Ozpin yelled. He was fighting Signal with his cane. Dusk tossed his sword to destroy about a dozen clones of Signal pursuing the prisoner, and the sword returned to his hand. Khol ran to Signal's side and they both chased the Huntsman and Summer out the door while Ozpin and Dusk fled to go after them.

In a last ditch effort to stop them, Leonidus transformed his shield into his shotgun and fired off several rounds, all of which Ozpin and Dusk batted away before they disappeared through the door.

Leonidus sucked in an angry, stinging breath through his teeth.

"Let's go," he said to Brutus.

"Where are we going?" Brutus asked.

"I'm going to end this. Ozpin and his friend will die, and then I'm gone."**

*Signal wasn't chasing after Summer with Khol anymore. She didn't think she needed her power. If the pool could give her the power she needed to bring Onyx back, then she didn't need Summer. If the pool didn't end up being enough, then Khol would already have Summer for Signal again.

Thanks to the location information Khol gave to Signal before they split up, Signal was able to track down the opening into the tunnels, amidst the debris of a downed building, which was a significant distance away from the other businesses and apartments in the city. In one of the books Signal had read from Ozpin's underground library, it said that the same building of which Signal walking through the ruins used to be a school for Huntresses specifically, until one of the Huntresses-in-training discovered her Semblance and got a little too excited with it. The building crumbled to the ground, and rumor had it that every student perished in the accident, because no one had been able to find any of the students anywhere afterwards. The location was convenient, because it was obvious that the Headmaster there decided that the pool underground could be used for the students once he felt they were ready to be responsible with the power that it provided. The actual origin of the pool however was unknown.

Signal felt her hand along the tunnel wall as she descended underground. She could feel her heart rate rise higher and higher as her aching body got lower and lower.**

*"This is pointless, brother. Why can't we just leave now? There's nothing we will gain from this," Brutus hissed as he followed Leonidus down the sidewalk.

"It will put my mind at ease to know that the one who hurt you is dead, that's what I will gain from this," Leonidus replied.

"Leonidus—."

Brutus was cut off when Leo's scroll rang. It was Signal.

"Leonidus, what is your position?" Signal asked when Leo answered it.

"I'm in hot pursuit of Ozpin and his companion. They will try to stop Khol from nabbing the Huntress. Where are you?"

"In the underground tunnels that Khol spoke of, but don't worry about me. Kill Ozpin and his friend."

"Yes, boss," Leonidus answered. He hung up and slipped his scroll back in his pocket.

"That'll be the last order from that witch me and you have to follow," he said to Brutus with his gaze still straight ahead.

Leonidus felt a blow to the back of the head, there was a sudden ache of deep-seated pain, and the world went dark.**

*Brutus stood behind the fallen body of his brother holding his sword with the bottom of the hilt facing outward.

"I'm sorry," he said. He took up his knife and laid it beside Leonidus. That way he could never teleport to where he was going. He then started heading in the direction of the school ruins where the entrance to the tunnel was.**

*Having stolen motorcycles from a bar parking lot, Ozpin and Dusk sped down the road to keep up with Khol and his men.

Ozpin could feel his confidence rising as he got closer and closer to the group, then the city sirens started wailing.

There were creatures of Grimm in the city.

From the side, Ozpin felt something tackle him off his motorcycle and his body collided with the side of a car.

"Ow," Ozpin said as he struggled to get back up.

Through blurry vision, he could make out the dark shape of a Griffon, a creature of Grimm with the head, wings and talons of a large predatory bird and the rear legs, tail and body of a lion or tiger. A row of bony spikes ran along its wings.

Ozpin reached for his cane that had fallen by his side and batted the Griffon away just as it lunged for him. When the Griffon attempted to go after him again, it was stopped short by Dusk's blade through its back. It fell over and began fading away to nothing.

Ozpin got himself back onto his feet and looked up to see several Griffons as well as a few Nevermores perching themselves on the roofs of random buildings and howling.

"This is not good. Signal did it. The whole city is seeped in fear, and it attracted the Grimm," Ozpin said.

"What do we do now?" Dusk asked.

For Ozpin, it was usually easy to come up with an answer. He believed he usually had the answers for just about everything. After all, wasn't that part of his responsibility as a leader and a Headmaster?

Nevertheless, the answer did come to him, and he wasn't going to enjoy telling Dusk.

"I will go face Signal myself. You will stay behind and get these people to safety."

"What? No. That wasn't part of the agreement. You had this whole strategy of us taking on Signal together."

"I know, but if I had just decided to finish this with Signal earlier, I don't believe the Grimm would be invading this city now. She is my responsibility, and mine alone."

"Ozpin—."

"Trust me, Dusk. I know what I'm doing," Ozpin insisted.

Dusk's eyes narrowed, and a disgusted scowl that even made Ozpin shiver flitted across his face.

"You tell yourself that right before every one of your failures?" He asked. Before Ozpin could reply, Dusk hopped back onto his motorcycle and sped away. Just as quickly as Dusk had left, a blinding spotlight poured over Ozpin and he looked up to see a large ship descending. A turret extending from its side mowed down the Nevermores and Griffons on the buildings nearby.

Reinforcements from Atleas. Which means…

The ship touched ground and James Ironwood stepped off of it armed with a machine rifle. He widened his eyes.

"Ozpin?" He asked.

"James, its been a while," Ozpin replied, too exhausted to make light of the moment.

"We were sent as soon as soon as word reached us that the Grimm breached the city limits. There are so many of them. I assume you're here to stop the Lioness's Pride."

"Yes, I need to find their leader, and her lieutenant is after Qrow and his team," Ozpin explained.

James raised an eyebrow. "Qrow and his team are here too? If you needed all of them, why didn't you call for us?"

"We were hoping to keep this under wraps. Seeing that you're here now, that's impossible at this point."

James raised his rifle and shot down a Beowolf that was coming up behind Ozpin.

"I will do everything in my power to take this city back," James said.

"You're a general now?"

"Captain. But I'm trying to work my way up," James replied with a smile he couldn't help but let slip.

"Hey, hey," someone shouted. James and Ozpin whirled around to see a large Faunus stumbling towards them. Blood was dripping down the skin between his eyes. Ozpin recognized him as one of the brothers that he and Dusk faced a while back with the Faunus Grimm.

James aimed his rifle directly at the Faunus's chest. "What do you want?"

"Calm down, okay? I just need help."

James and Ozpin briefly exchanged glances. "What would that be?" Ozpin asked.

"It's my brother. He knocked me out and left me. I think—I think he went where my boss is."

"And where is your boss?" James asked.

Leonidus chuckled, which allowed Ozpin to get a glimpse of his bloodstained teeth. "If I tell you, will you find my brother and bring him safely?"

Ozpin stepped forward. "I will try my best, but first tell me where your boss is. I need to find her."**

*I had to babysit a child before, but this is the most lethal babysitting job I've ever done.

Qrow was driving a stolen car with Taiyang and Summer in the back and Krystal in the front passenger seat. Behind them hot on their trail was Khol and about a dozen of his soldiers on motorcycles.

We have to get Summer out of here.

"Oh!" Summer cried out. Her hand clasped her belly and Taiyang immediately embraced her.

"What is it? Summer, what's wrong?"

"Oh no. It's coming."

Qrow's eyes snapped open.

"Oh crap," Krystal murmured.

"Qrow, we don't have time to get to our ship. We need to stop somewhere now," Taiyang urged.

"It'll never be safe as long as we're here, we have to escape the city," Qrow said.

"Look out!" Krystal screamed.

Qrow saw a gigantic Ursa roar its way onto the street, straight into their path. He swerved out of the monster's way and drove around. One of the soldiers crashed into the Ursa's leg and his motorcycle exploded in a ball of fire.

"Grimm are in the city," Qrow said.

"Great, just what needed on top of everything else," Taiyang whined. His rant was cut short when gunfire smashed into the back window and shattered the glass. Taiyang grabbed Summer's head with both of his hands and ducked it to keep it away from the line of fire.

"They have turrets built into their motorcycles," Taiyang informed Qrow.

Qrow reached down underneath the wheel and pulled out a shotgun and tossed it to Taiyang.

"Take this."

"Where did you get this?" Taiyang asked.

"A little care package from Captain Jimmy when you were saving Ozpin," Qrow replied.

Taiyang took up the gun and aimed the barrel through the shattered window. He unloaded a round into the chest of an incoming soldier. The soldier's body immediately exploded in a cloud of Dust and the motorcycle fell onto its side and burst into flames upon it being collided with another soldier riding his vehicle. The soldier was flipped off and the flames embraced him as he cried.

"Tai!" Summer screamed.

"Qrow!" Taiyang shouted.

"I'm working on it!"

"Oh no," Taiyang said.

"What?"

"It's the FunHouse."

It was true. A gang known as FunHouse from the Black Hole was riding ahead of Khol and his men with weapons loaded on their motorcycles. Their motorcycles had flags protruding from their backs, proudly presenting their emblem, which was an F and H together within an orange circle. Greene was the name of their leader.

"Let em have it," Qrow ordered.

Taiyang began frantically firing at the team with more rounds from his shotgun, but the gang managed to ride out of the way, laughing as they went.

Taiyang then gasped when he saw Greene remove a rocket launcher from his back and aim it at the car.

"Rocket!" Taiyang screamed, but Greene had already fired it, and the rocket slammed into their car, forcing the back wheels off the road. Qrow threw himself at Krystal and pulled her to him, activating his Aura as he did so. Taiyang did the same thing with Summer.

"Hang on!" Qrow screamed.

The car finished flipping over, and Qrow heard metal screeching and flames licking everything around him. His body shook and Krystal screamed in his arms. Once the car finally settled, Qrow only knew one thing. The need to get out and get away.

Fast.**

*Khol stopped his motorcycle close by where the flipped car was resting. Most of the whole car was bathing in flames, with one part of it almost completely and hopelessly charred. Members of FunHouse were getting off their motorcycles to see if any of the people inside survived.

Khol removed a pistol from his belt and shot down every one of the unsuspecting gang members before they could get any closer.

"Sorry gentlemen, they're mine," he declared. He turned to the soldiers waiting for his next order.

"Hold this position and be my backup."

When he strolled over to the car, he grabbed hold of the driver's side door and tore it away from its hinges. Once he got a look inside, he saw that they were already gone. He looked up and spotted Qrow following Taiyang, Summer, and the Faunus traitor into a large warehouse.

His grin slipped further a notch.

"Come with me. All of you! We're going to finish this," Khol told his men.**

*Inside the warehouse, Krystal was using her night-vision to safely guide the others to a place where Summer could lie down and deliver her baby. Her face was dust, cheeks streaked with tears and swear. Krystal took them upstairs onto a platform and Summer was laid out between two high stacks of crates, some of them bearing the emblem of the Schnee Dust Company. Her water had already broken, and the contractions were starting to come faster now.

"Keep us safe," Taiyang said to Qrow as he knelt down beside his wife.

Qrow grimly nodded before running off to face Khol.

 _So this is it. This is what I am meant to accomplish. Failure could mean the end of us all_.**


	11. Mistakes

*James stared down at the prisoner aboard his ship - sitting chained in his seat with two guards standing on both sides of him. Leonidus kept his gaze on the ground with eyes that might as well had been made out of the metal of a dagger.

Despite Leonidus's obvious position, James needed to know something.

"You were willing to give away your boss's location. Why?"

Leonidus didn't talk for a moment. His tongue painted his lips wet with saliva and blood and a crooked grin slowly spread like a gradually building fire.

"It didn't matter how much I agreed with my master," he croaked. "The safety of my brother comes first. And I believe that my master has snapped. I think somewhere along the line, something happened to her that made her the way she is now."

Leonidus finally looked up at James with hungry eyes. "What your friend is doing by looking for Signal is suicide. No matter how powerful he thinks he is, he will never be able to prepare himself for what Signal can do."

"And what can she do?" James asked.

Leonidus only laughed, a wet hacking sound that made a shiver run down James's spine. "She will break him, just like she has been broken. Her lieutenant knew that she wouldn't last long, and he told me that I had permission to kill her when the need finally comes. When Signal took me and my brother on to be part of the Lioness's Pride, Khol tried to keep me and my brother separate, because he believed my brother would play the voice of reason."

Leonidus paused to chuckle at that, and a tear rose in his eye. "He was right about that. That's what my brother is, or at least that's what he tries to be. Fortunately, the bond between us has always been stronger than our allegiance to Signal, and there was nothing Khol could do to change that, but he believed I could do the job should it ever have to be done."

James narrowed his eyebrows and turned away from Leonidus, deciding to focus all of his attention on the battle down below. A lot of the citizens had already been evacuated, but it was becoming increasingly clear to James that the city wasn't going to survive. More and more Grimm were entering the city, and no matter how many got destroyed, more just kept coming.**

*Signal's eyes were glued to the pool. She had finally made it, and her hands were trembling so hard she was unsuccessful in gripping the hilt of her katana when she heard footsteps. She turned to find Brutus standing there.

"It's just me, boss."

"What are you doing here?" Signal asked.

"My brother sent me to protect you in case you need it. The pursuit for Ozpin and his friends continues."

Signal was irritated at the idea of someone acting as a bodyguard for her, but she was too focused on the pool to care. Soon she would become powerful enough to defend herself on her own. Maybe she didn't need the Lioness's Pride to see to it that her ultimate goal is finished.

"You'll need to take a step back. I'm going in, and I don't know what might happen to you," Signal said.

"It's okay. I understand," Brutus replied, and Signal felt his hand rest - just a littlebit too firmly - on her shoulder.**

*Ozpin ran, faster than he had in a long time. Despite using his Aura to repress most of the pain from running too long and too fast, he could still feel his muscles screeching at him to take a break.

"Signal!" he yelled, though he was barely able to put a sound behind his calls. He was so tired.

Finally, he rounded the corner in the tunnel to get to where the pool was. Signal was there. She turned around to see him, her eyes wide. She looked as though she was actually surprised that Ozpin went after her. With her was the assassin, Brutus, who had bandages covering multiple parts of his torn jacket.

Ozpin opened his mouth to say something, anything.

The tip of the black blade shot out of Signal's chest.

Ozpin barely heard himself over the sound of his own beating heart exploding through his ears. "No!"

Brutus had his hand on Signal's shoulder with the other hand gripping the hilt of his sword. A mixture of both pain and determination could be seen distorting his face.**

*In the warehouse, Summer's screams knifed through the silence as her newborn infant was about to be delivered. Taiyang held onto her and tried to keep her steady. One hand caressed her cheek.

"It's okay, I'm here, I'm here. Push, baby, push," Taiyang urged.

Tears streamed down Summer's cheeks and her cries continued. Another contraction flooded over her and her muscles tensed as she reared up, screaming mostly-silently. Taiyang was worried that that would draw Khol's men to them, but Qrow and Krystal had already gone off to face them, and hopefully they were succeeding in holding them back.**

*Ozpin rushed to Signal's side as her body collapsed onto the ground, just a few inches away from the pool. He managed to slide his hand behind Signal's head to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Signal, stay with me. Stay with me, okay?" Ozpin asked amidst the tears.

Signal coughed up blood and looked up at Ozpin. "Ozpin?"

"You're going to be okay, Signal. I'm here."

"Oz, I'm so sorry."**

*Summer let loose another strangled cry as her body violently shook.

"You're almost done. Just a few more. A few more," Taiyang said.

Another cry echoed through the warehouse, joining Summer's.**

*"What can I do?" Ozpin asked, more to himself than to Signal.

"You're already doing it," Signal replied.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth. I'm sorry I lied."

Signal's eyes changed, as though something had passed through her vision that Ozpin couldn't see. "I'm sorry too."

Signal reached her hand up to stroke Ozpin's cheek. She brought her other hand up to take Ozpin and draw him close to her. Before Ozpin was even able to fully register what was going on, his lips were locked with Signal's.

And despite everything Ozpin had thought before about the Faunus race and his relationship with Signal, the moment felt right.

"I have made many mistakes, and I would have made more," Signal said.

Before Ozpin could reply, Signal stopped breathing.**

*At the same time that Signal passed, a new life was born into the world. Taiyang took his newborn daughter and tears fell down his eyes at the sight. It was a tiny infant with beautiful, silver eyes, just like Summer had. She was still streaked with birthing fluids, but he had never thought anything was quite so perfect.

"What is her name?" Taiyang asked.

Summer shut her eyes with a satisfied smile and sighed. "Ruby."**

*Ozpin held onto Signal's body until there was nothing left but a spiral of floating Dust that drifted around him and embraced him. Within the Dust it felt warm, like a loving embrace from a loved one he hadn't seen in a long time.

 _I'm back._

That was undeniably Signal's voice. She was happy to be back with the rest of the earth. That was why Ozpin was so intent on preserving the Dust that he used to collect with Glynda, which was being used by people like Collus as energy for weapons. Very few people that passed away returned to the earth now.

Ozpin looked up at Brutus who was towering over him now. An unspeakable pain was bathing in his eyes, and he was almost out of breath. Before he could speak, two hands wrapped around his neck.**

*In his last moments, Brutus heard Ozpin's companion, Dusk whisper in his ear. "Thank you for doing your job."**

*Ozpin watched Dusk snap Brutus's neck before shoving his whole body into the pool. Brutus's body immediately drowned, its fate being to melt in reaction to the Dust that the pool had.

"It's over," Dusk said, reaching his hand out for Ozpin to take.

Ozpin reluctantly took it and got back onto his feet. The warmth that he had felt from Signal's Dust was now gone.

"I know you never meant to kill Signal, so when I saw that Brutus did it, I knew I had to do something," Dusk said.

"Killing him wasn't the answer," Ozpin replied.

"It was a desperate measure. He would've killed you afterwards," Dusk said dismissively.

Ozpin didn't doubt that, but as he started to piece together everything that had happened, more than he thought before began to make sense.

"Why did you go after the two assassins when they fled yesterday?"

"I told you. To make them serve as an example to the Lioness's Pride not to mess with us," Dusk replied.

"You told me though that you thought one of them was dead. When you came back to me, had you already made sure one of them was dead, or did you leave when you thought you had caused enough damage?" Ozpin asked.

Dusk stopped and folded his arms. He bit his lip in thought. "I thought I killed him, simple as that."

"Then I sent you to Signal's base of operations to fight her. I saw the bandages on the assassin that killed Signal, they weren't just some cheap bandages out of a small box, it was surgical dressing to protect deep wounds. He would've had to be in a room by himself for some time to heal."

At this point, Ozpin could see the confidence in Dusk's expression began to fade a little bit. He was clearly growing nervous.

"Dusk, did you negotiate with Brutus about killing Signal?" Ozpin asked.

"He didn't want to at first. I told him I would give him two days before I visit him again, and he still didn't budge. But he wasn't sure either, and I guess something happened along the way that made him change his mind."

"Dusk, I never said that our mission was to kill Signal."

"But that's what should've been planned all along. Damn, Ozpin, you're so soft. You never changed. You don't have the guts to be a Headmaster, or a Huntsman for that matter," Dusk growled.

"I don't want to fight you, Dusk. You're my friend," Ozpin said.

Dusk's eyes bulged, and without warning, he began laughing. It was a loud, high-pitched, frantic laugh that caught Ozpin off guard. Dusk sounded—insane.

"All this time, did you think my Semblance was the ability to steal another person's Semblance with my sword? That was merely biological. My Semblance is reality warping. I can create visions and change a person's surroundings to throw my enemy off," he said.

The tunnel walls started to morph and change around Ozpin, and he felt his heart rate steadily rise up the more everything shifted.

"Dusk, what are you doing?" Ozpin asked.

Then he heard screaming and his heart iced over. All around him, Faunus were running in one direction, some of them bloody and naked screaming and shouting as they tried to get away from a village. One Faunus threw himself at Ozpin onto his knees.

"Please, please help!" it shouted.

Before Ozpin could respond however, the tip of a longsword protruded out from his chest. Ozpin looked up to see that the one the sword belonged to was Dusk wearing a pitch black cloak.

An explosion rocked the ground,and Ozpin was terrified to see Atlas warships dropping bombs from the sky, lighting the village up in flames.

"What is this?" Ozpin demanded.

Dusk's voice echoed through Ozpin's head. "The future. The future where all Faunus go to die. If we don't destroy them all now, we humans will suffer at their hands as their slaves, which is why I will pour all my energy into wiping them out. By doing so, it had to start with Signal."

"But why?" Ozpin asked.

"If you watched helplessly as your own sister gets taken advantage of and then killed right in front of you by a gang of Faunus, you'd want revenge too, wouldn't you?"

The vision suddenly vanished and Ozpin found himself back in the tunnels, staring straight at Dusk's repulsive figure.

"You don't know me like you think you do," he snarled. "I am Dusk Gray, your former mentor's son, and I am seeking vengeance for the death of my father's team at the hands of Team Stark."

 _So this is it_.

Ozpin knew that Dusk was beyond saving.

He had to kill him.


	12. Adaption

Qrow and Krystal walked side by side through the warehouse to make their way back to the entrance. Once there, they could see the burning car they had come in. The air was thick with smoke and clogging up Qrow's nostrils, but he kept his posture.

He froze when he heard a particular sound. It was all he needed to hear to know what to do.

"Back to back!" he snapped at Krystal.

Krystal did what she was told without question, and the two stood in a defensive position as a circle of Faunus soldiers armed with swords leaped out from their hiding places among the crates to attack them.

Qrow and Krystal parried the soldiers' moves, and the warehouse was filled with the sound of metal biting metal.

Qrow focused on his breathing and on each sword as they came at him. He made sure his back stayed pressed against Krystal's as if doing that would somehow shield her from taking any hits. He could feel her movements as she herself kept from getting hit or slashed.

Finally, Qrow found an opening where he was able to cut his sword through a soldier's stomach. With a cry, the soldier cupped the blood spilling out of the wound with one hand before exploding in a flame of Dust, which sent several other soldiers flying backwards. One of them hit his head against a crate and was knocked out cold.

"Go for the heart," Qrow instructed.

"Got it," Krystal replied.

When was the last time I actually taught someone one-on-one?

 _Except_ — _this isn't training. This is the real thing_.

Krystal used her pipe to absorb enough hits from the swords and spray it back at her opponents, knocking several out with a single strike.

"I really do like that weapon," Qrow said.

Krystal merely grinned.

In less than a minute, the soldiers were all down, dissolving into Dust. Through's Qrow's blurred vision, he could see a tall, dark figure walking towards them through the large entrance of the warehouse. A terrible noise could be heard that Qrow realized was coming from the figure's katana as it dragged it across the floor. When Khol Taurus got close enough to Qrow and Krystal, he sliced the air with his weapon and brought the blade inches from his face so that it was hovering between his eyes.

"The famous Qrow Branwen—now needing assistance from a new pet," he remarked.

"Go back to Summer and Taiyang and make sure they're alright. I'll handle this," Qrow said to Krystal.

"But I want to fight."

"Do as I tell you. That's rule number one of being on Team Stark."

Krystal let loose a small gasp, but managed to recollect herself to run back in the direction they came.

"Signal told me all about you. How you hurt her and her friend, and that you held her own daughter back from her," Khol said.

"Blake was never hers," Qrow replied.

He charged first, guiding the tip of his sword along the ground as he ran while sparks flew. The two blades collided into each other and a sound wave exploded, knocking down crates and tossing up unconscious bodies.**

*"Maybe I should've seen that coming," Ozpin said wearily.

"For a powerful Huntsman such as yourself, you have a terrible radar for resemblance," Dusk replied. He pulled his sword out from his sheath, which looked dirtier than Ozpin realized at first. There were dry blood stains along the blade, which removed the slick glow that Ozpin remembered it to have.

"Corpse Thorn. It kills and steals for me."

"You can't blame the sword for your acts," Ozpin replied.

He reached for his belt and removed the sword that he himself had. A bright, pure light flashed upon being removed from its sheath.

"Beacon."

Before Ozpin had left to find Signal in the tunnels, James gave him the sword.

"Someone back home gave this to me in case I needed it here. It's better in your hands then it is in mine," he had said.

 _Glynda_.

Ozpin knew where he was going after he left the Black Hole.

Dusk started to chuckle, which slowly turned into a manic laugh that appeared to even be out of his control.

"When my team was killed by Qrow and his guys, my father vowed his revenge on Qrow, but he didn't trust me to defeat him myself since I failed once. His weakness was that even he didn't think he could take on Qrow alone, so he targeted your school to find a worthy partner to fight Qrow by his side," Dusk explained.

 _Now it all makes sense - why Vesper took over my school, and wanted Qrow dead_.

Dusk twirled Corpse Thorn in his hand and stabbed it into the ground. As the tip of the blade hit, Dusk disappeared.

Ozpin started, looking everywhere around him for Dusk. His former friend's insane laughter could be heard bouncing across the tunnel walls.

He whirled around to face—

Signal?

 _No, that's not Signal_.

"You failed me, Ozpin," Signal said in Dusk's voice. She leaped at Ozpin with her katana blade spinning towards his neck.

Ozpin caught the blade with Beacon just in time as Signal's form smashed into him, forcing him down through the ground. Needles of pain carved their way through Oz's head as he felt himself get driven further and further. Once he finally stopped, the Signal-imposter gave out a loud roar and wrapped its hands around Ozpin's neck to squeeze the oxygen out of him.

Ozpin's eyes bulged and he scrambled to wrestle the enemy's grip off of him with no success.

"You did this to me, Ozpin. You did this to me!"

"You're not her," Ozpin calmly replied, and he pushed his hand up underneath the Signal-imposter's chest, and released a blast of pure energy to rocket it off of him. Signal's body went flying straight up and it fell back onto the surface above ground. Ozpin leaped after it and landed on his feet with Beacon back in his hand. Instead of Signal's form he found, Dusk had taken on the form of a young woman Ozpin had never met before. Instead of a cave, Ozpin's surroundings was that of a cottage. Golden sunlight was streaming in from a window to Ozpin's left, and there was a wood table and chairs at the center. The woman stood in front of Ozpin holding Corpse Thorn, with the blade now somehow in flames. The woman's eyes were Dusk's, but her smile wasn't. Ozpin was distracted by how beautiful it was. She had long, flowing velvet hair that extended down and stopped directly above her lower backside and she wore a velvet combat skirt with a low V-neck and a large black belt was worn tightly around her waist.

"Qrow gutted me while all Dusk could do was lie where he was and watch. Do you understand now?" The woman asked, again in Dusk's voice.

"I know a thing or two about that," Ozpin said, refusing to be distracted. With Beacon, he lunged at the woman to slice across her stomach, but the woman was ready with Corpse Thorn and parried the move. Flames of which Ozpin could feel no heat from crawled its way down Dusk's sword and began licking Beacon's hilt around Ozpin's hands.

"It's not real," Ozpin reminded himself aloud. He shoved Dusk's sword aside and delivered a punch straight to the woman's chest. The woman immediately reformed back into Dusk and his body smashed into the wall. The cottage vanished, and the tunnel slid back into sight.

Dusk's body was trapped in the cave wall. He cursed and spat out dust.

"If you were a real woman, I wouldn't have done that. I don't hit women. Usually," Ozpin remarked wearily.

A warning cymbal in his head suddenly started clanging and he turned his head just in time to miss Dusk's sword singing through the air to slash his face open. Ozpin watched the glint of metal as the blade just barely missed him and spun around to try again.

The sword came at him, forcing Ozpin to face it with Beacon by parrying blow after blow. Within seconds, Ozpin was in a close battle with a sword that had no visible carrier.

 _Well, this just got more interesting_.**

*One thing Qrow had at his side was inhuman speed, which he used to scale backwards, then bolt straight at Khol swinging his great sword to slice his midsection. Khol used both hands to parry the move with his katana, then leaped onto the blade to send a roundhouse kick to Qrow's face to stun him. Qrow saw stars burst, and Khol launched one more kick up his chin to steal his feet from the ground.

Qrow landed on his head and jumped back onto his feet right away to parry a downward strike that was meant for his neck. Khol grinned and he leaped, flipping in the air directly over Qrow's sword, and his feet smashed into Qrow's face. He landed on the floor and tripped Qrow while spinning his legs. When Khol got up to stab Qrow in the chest, Qrow activated the shotgun barrels in the side of his hilt and fired a round straight into Khol's stomach. Khol flew backwards and crashed into several stacked crates, taking them down with him.

"This is also a gun," Qrow said with a smile. He got up and switched forms with his sword, transforming it into his scythe. He leaped with the scythe looming over his head to finish Khol off amidst the mess, but an arrow fired from a crossbow held by Khol blazed its way into Qrow's shoulder. The tip burst out the other side.

With a cry of pain and a curse, Qrow fell to the floor, feeling the arrow eat more through his flesh as he hit solid ground.

Qrow realized how foolish he was. He didn't have his Aura activated. He truly believed that he had his enemy at his mercy. Through blurry, teary-eyed vision, he saw Khol rise back up to his feet holding a glowing crossbow. It dissipated in his hand and replaced itself with a long spear.

"As powerful as I know I am, I never thought that I would be the one that kills Qrow Branwen, legendary Huntsman," he said.

Qrow attempted to use his elbow to keep his distance from Khol, but the pain in his shoulder was keeping him frozen where he was at.

At the tip of Khol's spear was a crystal that glowed a devilish red. Qrow's eyes widened when he realized what it was. One of the rarest crystals to ever be found on Remnant. A simple touch to the heart by the crystal would immediately stop its beating in no time at all.

Qrow tried to reach his thumb to a switch in the hilt of his scythe to change it, but Khol kicked it out of his hand. He couldn't do anything but watch Khol raise the spear to finish him off.

Khol was then interrupted by a lead pipe in the side of his face, tossing his entire body aside.

Krystal.

She stood there with her teeth bared and Heavy Metal in both of her hands, breathing heavily as if she had just finished a long run.

"Leave him alone," she shouted, voice trembling ever so slightly.

Khol got back up, baring his own teeth in return. "Don't make me do this," he said. Despite his demeanor, Qrow could almost hear a hint of sadness in his tone. Krystal was forcing him to fight and possibly kill one of his own.

Khol threw his spear directly at Krystal, in the hopes that the tip would find its mark in her chest. Krystal swung Heavy Metal in a diagonal arc that cut right through the middle of the spear, splitting it in half. Stunned by Krystal's strength, Khol ran after her while summoning a war-scythe and lowered his body to slide his feet across the ground in an attempt to slice off her legs. Krystal flipped over Khol's body, narrowly avoiding his swing as his weapon cut through empty air. Krystal landed behind him and delivered a side-kick at his back.

Immediately when Khol felt Krystal's boot, he activated his Aura to allow himself to bounce off the floor when he fell forward. While up in the air, his scythe dissolved away and he turned his body around and tossed a spinning pocket knife from his belt at her. Krystal's Aura caused the knife to harmlessly bounce off her body, and she leaped up at her enemy, delivering several strikes with her pipe to Khol's stomach.

With a cry of pain and rage, Khol grabbed hold of one end of Krystal's pipe and used it to pull himself closer to Krystal and strike her across the face with his free hand. Krystal responded with a head-butt and a strike to Khol's head with the pipe using both her hands, and Khol's body fell and hit the ground in less than a second, tossing up concrete and debris everywhere. More crates that had been stacked fell over, some cracking open and spilling out some of its contents.

Krystal landed on the ground with one hand on the floor. Her breathing was so heavy she was on the verge of coughing. Never before had she pushed herself this hard. The only thing she could think about now was protecting Qrow, who was still lying on the floor clutching his shoulder.

Khol was already back up, this time with a mace in his hand. "You're gonna pay for helping the humans, you rat!"

"Funny, you're acting a lot like a human," Krystal replied.

Khol raised his mace and struck the ground in front of him, allowing it to create a trail of broken concrete heading in Krystal's direction to stun her.

Krystal twirled her pipe and stabbed it into the ground, disrupting the path of destruction the force of the mace was making. When enough debris floated up in the air, Krystal used her pipe to bat several pieces towards Khol, all of which struck him in different places, leaving him dazed and winded. Krystal launched herself at him and Khol swung a newly formed war hammer while spinning around to face her again. Krystal ducked and slid on her knees with her head back, watching the handle of the hammer fly over her. After straightening herself back up behind Khol, she swung her pipe once more at him. It struck him in the back of the head, tossing him further away towards the large opening of the warehouse.

Krystal walked over to Khol and kicked him to flip him over onto his back. In a last-ditch effort to defend himself, Khol tried to use his Semblance to form an oversized cleaver, but Krystal kicked his hand to interrupt the process.

She stared him down, making sure to give him intense eye contact.

"You will get up, and leave this city and never come back," she said.

Her hold on Khol was a success. He got up onto his feet, nodded, and turned to walk away. One hand was massaging his shoulder as if embarrassed.

Krystal waited until Khol was out of sight before turning around to check on Qrow. She gasped when she saw that Qrow had been standing directly behind her with his arms folded. A smirk flitted across his features.

"Not bad, kid."

"What? I thought you were hurt! You were lying on the ground, I was trying to protect you."

"Yep, you were, but I was fine just after five seconds when you started fighting him."

Qrow's eyes widened in surprise when Krystal shoved him with both of her hands.

"You're a meanie!" she growled.

Qrow grabbed Krystal and playfully twisted his fist through her hair.

"Yeah, well, this meanie is the only one you've got."

Krystal pulled herself out of Qrow's hold and looked in the direction from where they came to fight Khol. "Not the only one."

The two of them ran off together to check on Summer and Taiyang.**

*Ozpin was dueling with Dusk surrounded by an illusion of a training room at Beacon Academy. Their blades were moving as spinning silver blurs slicing through open air and consistently bouncing off one another.

The walls of Beacon crumbled and fell all around Oz, and the cave walls returned. Ozpin gasped when he realized how close he was to falling straight into the pool that was behind him. A fiendish grin broke through Dusk's features and he managed to strike Ozpin with his elbow in the throat. Ozpin fell straight down, his head hovering just above the Dust-tainted water.

"That's it. Just let go. It's a fate worse than what _I_ can give you," Dusk sneered.

Ozpin attempted to grab his fallen sword, but Dusk kicked it aside. His hand clamped its fingers around Ozpin's neck and started squeezing. Dusk held the tip of his sword towards Ozpin's forehead.

"I want to hear you squeal before I kill you. Go on. Cry out to your dead girlfriend, Signal, who's nothing but forgotten dust in the wind."

"I'll always remember her. She was far more than you will ever even care to know," Ozpin choked.

With both hands, he clasped Dusk's wrist that was holding him down and allowed a burst of Aura to course through his fingers, breaking Dusk's hold from him. When Dusk let go, Ozpin took a swing at him with a free fist and cuffed him across the face, stunning him long enough to allow him the time to get back up. He rolled for his sword and swiped it up. When he looked to where Dusk was supposed to be standing, he saw someone else instead.

Glynda's dead sister, Theodora.

Her skin was pale and clammy, almost like that of a zombie's. The life that Ozpin remembered seeing in Theodora's eyes was dead and her shoulders were sagged.

"Look at me. Look at what I've become. And it's all your fault," she said.

This isn't real. This isn't real. Theodora is dead.

Ozpin lashed out at Theodora's figure and sliced across her torso. Theodora's form changed to Glynda. Both blood and tears were streaming down her cheeks and her hair, which was usually tied up in the back, was a tangled, sticky mess like a messed-up wig.

"You're a liar, that's all you are," she said.

Ozpin shook his head. He was beginning to feel his defenses break down. This is all a trick. It had to be.

Ozpin slashed Glynda's form too to get it away from him, but all it did was bring someone else each time he tried to get rid of it.

Oobleck: "Manipulator."

Ozpin's father, Haman: "Selfish."

Peter Port: "Too compassionate."

Onyx: "You didn't protect me."

Olive, one of Ozpin's students last year: "Useless and weak."

Ozpin's mother: "I'm sorry Ozpin, but you're not who I hoped you would be."

After hacking through his former and dead mentor Vesper Gray and Oobleck's cousin Mayzie, Signal Belladonna finally took their place.

"You let me die."

"I didn't, Signal. I tried. I really did," Ozpin finally said. He didn't care if the Signal he was looking at was real or not. He had to say what he said, in order to get it off his chest. This was why he tended to fail at every turn, because he allowed previous failures to weigh him down.

 _It's time to let go_.

Signal's expression changed to one of pure rage and she lashed out at Ozpin. Ozpin swept his blade through the illusion and saw Dusk swing his sword Corpse Thorn diagonally. The blade sliced through a thin layer of his flesh in the shoulder. The pain was minimal however, because Ozpin already had his Aura activated on a high enough level to impair most of the pain. Still, blood, accompanied by drifting yellow Dust, spurted from Ozpin's shoulder and stained Dusk's blade.

In that instant, time appeared to slow, and Ozpin was able to spot the opening he had. With just one hand, he raised Beacon and sliced straight through Dusk's own shoulder. Dusk's unattached arm fell to the ground, the hand still clutching Corpse Thorn.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Dusk screamed. His hand immediately went to the stump where his arm used to be and he sank to his knees.

"You don't even know what my Semblance is, so how do you think you would have been able to use it?" Ozpin asked.

Dusk stared up at Ozpin, and for the first time, Ozpin saw fear in his eyes. Untamed, rabid terror that spread from his eyes and coursed through the rest of his features.

"You won't kill me. You can never bring yourself to do that," Dusk said.

"I was never supposed to kill Signal. But I see what I'm supposed to do to you," Ozpin replied.

When he plunged Beacon through Dusk's chest, the face of Signal was looking up at him, her eyes pleading him to stop.

 _You're not real_. He chanted it over and over, repeating the words even as he started to draw the blade out.

Signal's form reverted back to Dusk as soon as the blade ceased to remain in contact with his skin. The body started turning to Dust before it even hit the ground.


	13. A Smaller, More Honest Soul

*Khol limped down the sidewalk of the Black Hole. There were fires everywhere in different parts of the city, and the loud, lonely cries of Beowolves could be heard in the night.

 _Where's a ship? Where's a single, bloody ship_?

In his confused state, Khol bumped into someone. The man he ran into spun around, revealing Roman Torchwick. There were several awkward seconds of Roman just staring at him in awe. Then, Roman lifted his cane and fired an explosive round of plasma into Khol's chest.**

*Roman watched Khol fly up and land on his back. Smoke trailed from his burst chest.

"Oops."

Neo looked at him in slight concern.

"What? He frightened me!" Roman said.

Neo's expression didn't change.

"Come on, let's get out of this city before they nuke it," Roman said, throwing his hands up in the air.**

*Roman and Neo were completely unaware of Khol's son, Adam, who ended up witnessing the whole thing. With him watching was Blake, his best friend.

"Dad? No no no," Adam ran across the street and collapsed by his father's side.

"No no no! Don't go, Daddy. Don't go away!"

Adam tried over and over again to touch his father, but his father's body was dissolving into Dust. Blake continued looking on with tears in her eyes, not knowing what to do.

Khol's body finally completely left Adam behind to cry with Blake massaging his shoulder. He didn't have long before several Faunus soldiers from the Lioness's Pride came and swept both him and Blake away.**

*Ozpin could feel real relief, something he hadn't felt in a long time, wash over him like a warm shower. He fingered Beacon's hilt with trembling anticipation. He was going to go back with James to Atlas and give the sword back to Glynda himself.

He didn't even care in that moment that there was the possibility that she didn't want to see him.

Then, the nuke hit the city Splotch, destroying all the Grimm that had swarmed over it. Under Ironwood's direction most of the population had been successfully evacuated and were being given a ride to Atlas to be given shelter until they could get new homes. Unfortunately, Splotch was officially erased from the map of Remnant. Ozpin hoped that he would find Onyx's daughter Blake, but her and a small group of warriors from the Lioness's Pride were missing, which meant they had probably fled the city.

"I hope we won't have to do something like this again," James said as he stared out the window watching the destruction left behind.

Ozpin was sitting in a chair next to Qrow with his head in his hands. The relief he had felt a moment ago was now gone, replaced by a fiendish headache. He felt something nudge his shoulder and he looked to see Qrow offering him his canteen. Ozpin grimaced and silently shook his head. Qrow shrugged and took a long swig.

"Summer and Taiyang are in a separate ship heading to Signal Academy now. Their other daughter probably really misses them right now. Oh, and I got a new student," Qrow said.

"New student?" Ozpin asked.

"Yeah. A young Faunus girl; she used to be a slave."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Was it a rabbit girl?"

"Ozpin, you know better than to be speciesist."

Ozpin stared at his friend in awe, his eyes were as wide as they could ever be. "How did you do it?"

"By being awesome," Qrow said with a shrug as he took another swig of his ale.**

*Ozpin barely remembered the first time he went to Atlas. His parents, when they were both younger and happy together, took him on a special trip to the kingdom once as a child. It's where he met his mentor Vesper Gray for the first time, and when he received his first lessons from him. Dusk was always in the streets playing pranks on other people, and Ozpin foolishly joined him. Dusk never brought up who his father was, and when Ozpin left, he had snuck aboard his parents' ship and spent a couple more weeks staying over at Ozpin's home until Ozpin's parents got to take him to the train station and meet up with Vesper. Ozpin's parents liked Vesper, and invited him to be a regular mentor to Ozpin for the next year, giving Ozpin an opportunity to see Dusk several times over the years since then, but every time he saw him again, Dusk was different. Not in the bad sense of different, but Ozpin was mostly unaware that there was something slightly concerning about him.

On the landing platform, Ironwood and several of his men led Leonidus away to be brought to trial. While he was directly responsible for several assassinations and the deaths of dozens of humans, Ozpin couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. He lost his brother, and when he heard the news that Brutus was dead, his expression then was clearly one of grief. In the end, he also helped Ozpin find Signal, even if it was too late by then to save her.

Ozpin found himself looking around the platform, trying to find a very specific person. Then, he saw her standing with a group of students from the Atlas academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Glynda.

In terms of appearance, Ozpin noticed that she hasn't changed much since the last time he saw her. There was an undeniable giddiness in her green eyes that made it clear she was happy to see him again.

That's good, because that means this isn't going to be as awkward as I thought it might be.

He approached Glynda, and as if the students knew exactly what was going on, they dispersed, leaving the two standing alone facing each other as if it was a staring contest.

Well this is starting awkward.

"Hi," Ozpin said.

The vaguest hint of a smile slipped in Glynda's beautiful features. "Hi," she said softly."**

*Ozpin found himself in Glynda's own room in the academy. She had been working as a substitute teacher specifically to help students with special needs control their Semblance when under great stress.

Her room had nothing particularly special, with the exception of a chess board on a table by the window. There were pieces on it from both colors on random spots, indicating that it was in the middle of a game. When Ozpin approached it to get a closer look, he realized that the king piece from one color was in just the right spot to take out the queen from the other team. Just for fun, he moved the king to take out the queen and placed the queen piece off to the side.

"You just took out Ironwood's queen," Glynda said.

That got a frown from Ozpin. "Ironwood? You two have been—making coconut cakes for each other?"

Glynda chuckled, knowing what Ozpin was saying. "No. Not really. It's—"

"Complicated?"

"Yeah, complicated."

Ozpin removed Beacon from his sheath and held it out to Glynda to take it.

"I believe this is yours."

Glynda took it back and carefully set it on a stand nailed to the wall.

She leaned against the wall by the table with her arms folded. "I heard about what happened to Signal."

"Do you know how exactly it went down?" Ozpin asked.

"I know you didn't kill her if that's what you're asking," Glynda replied.

What frustrated Ozpin was that he wasn't sure what kind of mood Glynda was in. He didn't know if she was happy to have him around again or irritated. Her mood seemed to shift from one to another, and sometimes he couldn't tell how she was feeling at all.

"I tried to save her. I really, really did. But she changed. She became so driven by these goals she had that she didn't even notice anymore that she was hurting and even killing other people in the process," Ozpin said. He could feel tears start to sting his eyes. He still had that throbbing feeling in his lips from when Signal kissed him and his cheeks started to burn.

Empathy bled through Glynda's features, and she got closer to Ozpin with her hand halfway up, pondering over whether or not to touch his cheek. An old habit that apparently never withered away.

"It's okay. You tried. And that's the best anyone can ever ask for," she said.

She stopped short from touching Ozpin's cheek and her hand dropped back to her side. "I have something but I don't know how you would feel about seeing it yet."

"What is it?" Ozpin asked.

From under her bed, Glynda pulled out a cardboard box that was already open. When she put it on the bed, what Ozpin saw inside made his heart wilt.

Inside the box were all things that had belonged to Signal Belladonna.

One of the items was the pink wristband that Onyx made for her shortly before they were both taken by Collus. It was left behind in Onyx's little home that both Signal and Ozpin had provided her with. With a trembling hand, Ozpin picked up the wristband and held it with both his hands, turning it over to take the whole thing in.

"Signal hated pink," he said.

Glynda sadly laughed next to him amidst tears and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Ozpin picked up another item from the box, which was the purple one-piece sheath dress Signal's old friend Auburn gave her right before she died.

"Over the last year, I worked on tracking down a bunch of stuff that belonged to Signal that she left behind so that—you know, just in case," Glynda said.

In short, what Glynda had put together was a box of memories. Some of the things that were in the box were things that Ozpin didn't recognize at all, but he figured they still held some sort of special significance. He sank onto Glynda's bed next to the box, still holding the dress.

Glynda sat next to him with her arm around his shoulders. "We did what we could. You know that, right?"

Ozpin wiped a tear away from his eye. "I suppose so."

"You know so," Glynda said gently. "You're not invincible, Ozpin. People loved her," Glynda continued, "and she knew that, even though she struggled. It's admirable how you feel about Signal and what she went through, but it's high time to let go and continue being the headmaster that you are, and see to it that other students don't tread down the same path that she did."

Ozpin reached up to hold the hand Glynda had on his shoulder and he nodded. "You're right. As usual."

Glynda smirked. "My rightness always seemed to irritate Ironwood."

Ozpin blinked. "It's 'Ironwood'? Not 'James'?"

"Like I said, it's complicated. And no I'm not going to get into it right now," Glynda insisted.

The two of them sat in silence for a minute longer. Then:

"I should go back to Beacon. Oobleck and Port can only improvise for so long," Ozpin said. He stood up, grabbed his cane, and started heading towards the door. He stopped once he reached it, a new thought forming in his head.

"In case you're ever interested, the position of assistant Headmaster is still open for the taking," he said.

Glynda didn't answer. Her gaze was on the floor and her hands were wringing together.

"Anyway, let me know if you're interested. They miss you over there."

The hallway was silent, save for the sound of Ozpin's cane striking the floor as he walked. Before he got to the door that would take him to the top of a stairwell outside, his scroll buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to see that Glynda had texted him.

 _Wait for me_.**

*In the darkness, Ozpin stepped into the only light, the moonlight, ready to confront the one that wanted to speak to him.

He had no desire to speak to her. She was worth nothing to him anymore. Her selfish desire for revenge was so strong Ozpin could feel it vibrating around him. Whatever beauty she had before was now gone, replaced by a pale, glowing malice.

"I'm giving you a chance, Ozpin. Do not test my patience," she said.

"You've already tested mine, when I recognized the method my friend was using to drain Summer of her power."

"After everything, you still considered Signal to be your—"

"Do not say her name. You have no business with it."

A fierce fire sprang up in her eyes, and it seemed to Ozpin that she was going to lash out at him, but she stayed where she was and let loose a long sigh instead.

"There was a light in her. One that you would've never been able to see," Ozpin said.

"Even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. You know this, Ozpin. I told you before. And when they are gone, darkness will return."

Salem rose to her feet, revealing her true height which completely blocked out the shattered moon shining behind her.

"So you may prepare your guardians. Build your monuments to a so-called free world," she sneered. "But take heed. There will be no victory in strength."

Ozpin folded his arms and smiled in a way that made Salem frown. His gaze over his tiny glasses bored through Salem's eyes, and she shivered.

"But perhaps, victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul."

 _And I know who that will be, when the time is right_.**

 **AN: Well, that's it. The final chapter of the** ** _Team Ozpin_** **series. It has been a fun and incredible ride, and I can't thank you all enough for reading this series and supporting it. I wish I had been able to get the whole third volume out sooner but due to delays in the writing process and personal life stuff going on, it took a lot longer than I had hoped. Nevertheless, I'm so glad that I was able to share the full story that I wanted to tell. While there were of course some storytelling elements that didn't make it into the series, I am overall satisfied with how it turned out in the end.**

 **Acknowledgements**

 **I'd like to thank a couple people for the development of this volume:**

 **I'd like to thank Elfin Maid for being my editor again in this crazy story, and for giving me good feedback and tweaking things if she felt they needed to be tweaked. She has been a faithful supporter of my writing on this site for more than two years now and it's incredible and hard to believe that its been this long. I highly recommend you check out her stories too. She's a very talented writer.**

 **I'd like to thank my personal friend Poul for being a storytelling consultant with me on this volume. Though I call him a 'consultant', he really had a hand in crafting some very large parts of this story. Without him, Leonidus and Brutus would not have existed, and he is also responsible for the creation of Dusk Gray's character as well (I was the one that decided he would be Vesper Gray's son and that he had the ability to form visions but everything else came from Poul). Without him, this story simply wouldn't have been what it is now.**

 **I'd like to thank the producers of the show** ** _RWBY_** **who continues to expand and craft the world of Ruby in its creator's absence. I look forward to seeing Volume 4's premiere on October 22!**

 **Finally, I'd like to thank the late Monty Oum for creating such a deep and intriguing new world, and I would like to dedicate this series to him as well. Without him,** ** _Team Ozpin_** **would've never existed, and it gave me an opportunity to try different things with my writing and storytelling. His presence in** ** _RWBY_** **is greatly missed and it will never feel the same without him. We miss you, Monty.**

 **Thanks again for reading this series! I have some ideas for more stories in the future, including a possible spin-off with Leonidus, but I would also really like to do a story about the Joker (you can thank** ** _Suicide Squad_** **for that) and I'm still in the middle of another Middle-Earth series that takes place after** ** _The Silvan Elf_** **. Anyway, thanks again!**


	14. Epilogue

**AN: Well I didn't really expect to come back to add to this at all, but here is a short epilogue for this volume. Given the recent developments in RWBY Volume 4, it definitely changed a few things. Unfortunately this epilogue doesn't explain the continuity issue in this series about Blake's mother, but it acknowledges something else that this series can't truly end without mentioning. Let me know what you guys think and if you want, leave me some theories about the story of Blake's mother, and maybe just maybe that'll appear in a mini-series dedicated to fixing that as best I can. Enjoy!**

Unbeknownst to any of the students that attended Beacon Academy was a large vault beneath the school, and it was home to something of great importance.

Together, Ozpin and Qrow traveled down to its depths. Ozpin kept his breath held the entire ride down while Qrow continued swigging away at his canteen.

"If we find the Relic down here, we'll need to put it somewhere else. Somewhere where no one will be able to find it," Qrow said.

"I know," Ozpin replied.

"Salem will try to find it. She'll come for it some day."

"I know."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "So that's the only response I'm gonna get from you?"

"I know—I mean, yes. Probably. I don't know."

Qrow chuckled. "Maybe it's best that you don't speak at all."

Ozpin couldn't agree more. His heart leaped once the elevator had descended down to the next-to-last floor. The doors opened, revealing a long hallway with torches on both sides lighting the room with an eerie, green light.

"Good luck," Qrow said.

"You're not coming with me?" Ozpin asked.

Qrow sighed. "I'm hanging back just to be safe. I don't want my Semblance to interfere somehow."

Ozpin understood. Qrow's Semblance was more than just an 'ability', it was almost like a bad luck charm. The first hint of his Semblance came when his mother died in childbirth, even though she was completely healthy during the process. Wherever he went, bad luck seemed to be sure to follow.

Signal and Onyx were proven victims of that.

When the elevator closed and started its journey up, Ozpin waited for it to come back down. After a minute, the elevator doors slid back open, this time no Qrow. Ozpin stepped into the elevator and continued going down further and further and further. As it was about to reach Ozpin's destination, he could feel the power of the Relic growing stronger. He wondered which Relic it was exactly, and when the doors opened and all then became clear to him, he smiled.

 _Alright then_. _There's a lot that has to be done_.


End file.
